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THE LETTERS OF 

FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Personal and Political 

EDITED BY 
ANNE WINTERMUTE LANE 

AND 

LOUISE HERRICK WALL 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

QCbe ftibersitie $ress Cambridge 
1922 






COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY ANNE W. LANE 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



30577^ 



yyTs 



CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 



To 

Those whose love for my husband 

is an inspiring reality 

this book of his Letters is dedicated 

a. w. L. 



PREFACE 

From the thousands of typewritten letters found in his files, 
and from the many holograph letters sent to me from his 
friends in different parts of the country, we have attempted, 
in this volume, to select chiefly those letters which tell the 
story of Franklin K. Lane's life as it unfolded itself in service 
to his country which was his passion. A few technical letters 
have been included, because they represent some incomplete 
and original phases of the work he attempted, — work, to 
which he brought an intensity of interest and devotion that 
usually is given only to private enterprise. 

In editing his letters we have omitted much, but we have 
in no way changed anything that he wrote. Even where, in 
his haste, there has been an obvious slip of the pen, we have 
left it. Owing to his dictating to many stenographers, with 
their varying methods of punctuation and paragraphing, and 
because the letters that he wrote himself were often dashed 
off on the train, in bed, or in a hurried five minutes before 
some engagement, we found in them no uniformity of punctu- 
ation. In writing hastily he used only a frequent dash and 
periods; these letters we have made agree with those which 
were more formally written. 

With the oncoming of war his correspondence enormously 
increased — the more demanded of him, the more he seemed 
able to accomplish. Upon opening his files it took us weeks 
to run through and destroy just the requests for patron- 
age, for commissions, passports, appointments as chaplains, 
promotions, demands from artists who desired to work on 
camouflage, farmers and chemists who wished exemption, 
requests for appointments to the War Department; letters 



viii PREFACE 

asking for every kind of a position from that of night- 
watchman to that of Brigadier-General. For his friends, and 
even those who had no special claim upon him, knew that 
they could count on his interest in them. 

One of his secretaries, Joseph J. Cotter, a man he greatly 
trusted, in describing his office work says: "Whatever was of 
human interest, interested Mr. Lane. His researches were by 
no means limited to the Department of the Interior. For in- 
stance, I remember that at one time, before the matter had 
been given any consideration in any other quarter, he asked 
Secretary of Agriculture Houston to come to his office, in the 
Interior Department, and went with him into the question 
of the number of ships it would take to transport our soldiers 
to the other side. And as a result of this conference, a plan 
was laid before the Secretary of War. I remember this partic- 
ularly because it necessitated my looking up dead-weight 
tonnage, and other matters, with which I was entirely un- 
familiar. . . . 

"I have never known any one who could with equal facility 
follow an intricate line of thought through repeated interrup- 
tions. I have seen Mr. Lane, when interrupted in the middle 
of an involved sentence of dictation, talk on some other sub- 
ject for five or ten minutes and return to his dictation, taking 
it up where he left it and completing the sentence so that it 
could be typed as dictated, and this without the stenogra- 
pher's telling him at what point he had been interrupted." 

His letters are peculiarly autobiographical, for whenever 
his active mind was engaged on some personal, political, or 
philosophical problem, his thought turned naturally to that 
friend with whom he would most like to discuss the subject, 
and, if he could possibly make the time, to him he wrote just 
what thoughts raced through his mind. To Ambassador 



PREFACE ix 

Page he wrote in 1918, "I have a very old-fashioned love for 
writing from day to day what pops into my mind, contradict- 
ing each day what I said the day before, and gathering from 
my friends their impressions and their spirit in the same 
way." And in another letter he says, "Now I have gos- 
siped, and preached, and prophesied, and mourned, and 
otherwise revealed what passes through a wandering mind 
in half an hour, so I send you at the close of this screed, my 
blessing, which is a poor gift." 

At home on Sunday morning before the fire, he would often 
write many letters — some of them twenty pages in length 
and some mere scrappy notes. He wrote with a pencil on a 
pad on his knee, rapidly stripping off the sheets for me to 
read, in his desire to share all that was his, even his innermost 
thoughts. 

To the many correspondents who have generously re- 
turned to me their letters, and with no restrictions as to their 
use, I wish particularly to express here my profound grati- 
tude. The limits of one volume have made it possible to use 
only a part of those received, deeply as I have regretted the 
necessity of omitting any of them. In making these acknowl- 
edgments I wish especially to thank John H. Wigmore, since 
to him we owe all the early letters — the only ones covering 
that period. 

For possible future use I shall be grateful for any letters 
that I have not already seen, and if in the preparation of 
these letters for publication we have allowed any mistakes 
to slip in, I hope that the error will be called to my attention. 

Anne Wintermute Lane 

March, 1922 



CONTENTS 

I. Introduction 

Youth — Education — Characteristics 

II. Politics and Journalism. 1884-1894 17 
Politics — Newspaper Work — New York — Buying into 
Tacoma News — Marriage — Sale of Newspaper 

Letters: 

To John H. Wigmore. 18 

To John H. Wigmore. 19 

To John H. Wigmore. 22 

To John H. Wigmore. 30 

III. Law Practice and Political Activities. 1894-1906 31 

Law — Drafting New City Charter — Elected as City and 
County Attorney — Gubernatorial Campaign — Mayoralty 
Campaign — Earthquake — Appointment as Interstate Com- 
merce Commissioner 

Letters: 

To P. T. Spurgeon. 32 

To John H. Wigmore. 33 

To John H. Wigmore. 35 

To John H. Wigmore. 35 

To Lyman Naugle. 38 

To John H. Wigmore. 42 

To John H. Wigmore. 43 

To William It. Wheeler. 45 

To Orva G. Williams. 46 

To the Iroquois Club, Los Angeles, California. 47 

To Isadore B. Dockweiler. 47 

To Edward B. Whitney. 51 

To Hon. Theodore Roosevelt. 53 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 54 

To William E. Smythe. 55 

To John II. Wigmore. 56 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 56 

To William R. Wheeler. 60 

To John H. Wigmore. 61 

To William R. Wheeler. 62 



xii CONTENTS 

IV. Railroad and National Politics. 1906-1912 63 

Increased Powers of Interstate Commerce Commission — 
Harriman Inquiry — Railroad Regulation — Letters to 
Roosevelt 

Letters : 

To Edward F. Adams. 64 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 65 

To Elihu Root. 66 

To E. B. Beard. 67 

To George W. Lane. 68 

To Charles K. MeCIatchy. 70 

To Lawrence F. Abbott. 71 

To John H. Wigmore. 72 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane 74 

To Theodore Roosevelt. 75 

To John H. Wigmore. 77 

To William R. Wheeler. 78 

To Lawrence F. Abbott. 80 

To Charles K. MeCIatchy. 81 

To Charles K. MeCIatchy. 83 

To John Crawford Burns. 83 

To Theodore Roosevelt. 85 

To Samuel G. Blythe. 87 

To Sidney E. Mezes. 87 

To John H. Wigmore. 88 

To George W. Lane. 89 

To Carl Snyder. 90 

From Oliver Wendell Holmes. 91 

To Oliver Wendell Holmes. 93 

To John H. Wigmore. 94 

To Daniel Willard. 94 

To John McNaught. 95 

V. Express Case — Cabinet Appointments. 1912-1913 97 

Politics — Democratic Convention — Nomination of Wilson 
— Report on Express Case — Democratic Victory — Prob- 
lems for New Administration — On Cabinet Appointments 
Letters: 

To Albert Shaw. 97 

To Curt G. Pfeiffer. 98 

To George W. Lane. 99 

To Oscar S. Straus. 101 



CONTENTS 



Xlll 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 10 2 

To George W. Lane. 202 

To John H. Wigmore. 203 

To Timothy Spellacy. 204 

To Adolph C. Miller. W5 

To William F. McCombs. 206 

To Hugo K. Asher. 207 
To Francis G. Newlands. 
To Woodrow Wilson. 
To William J. Bryan. 
To James D. Phelan. 



109 
110 
111 

To Herbert Harley. 212 

To Charles K. McClatchy. 2 13 

To Ernest S. Simpson. 214 

115 
116 



To Fairfax Harrison 
To James P. Brown 

To Adolph C. Miller. \[j 

To Edward M. House. 218 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 219 

To Sidney E. Mezes. 220 

To John II. Wigmore. 221 

To John H. Wigmore. 222 

To Joseph N. Teal. 224 

To Edward M. House. 224 

To Mitchell Innes. 226 

VI. Secretary of the Interior. 1913-1915 129 

Appointment as Secretary of the Interior — Reorganization 
of the Department — Home Club — Bills on Public La?ids 

Letters : 

To John II. Wigmore. 231 

To Walter H. Page. 233 

To Edwin A. Alderman. 234 

To Theodore Roosevelt. 234 

To Lawrence F. Abbott. 135 

To William M. Bole. 136 

To Fairfax Harrison. 237 

To Frank Reese. 238 

To Mark Sullivan. 240 

To Edward M. House. 242 

To James II. Barry. 243 

To Edward F. Adams. 244 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 245 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 147 



xiv CONTENTS 

To Albert Shaw. 148 

To Charles K. Field. 150 

To Frederic J. Lane. 151 

To Edward E. Leake. 152 

To William R. Wheeler. 153 

To . 154 

To his Brother on his Birthday. 155 

To Cordenio Severance. 157 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 158 

To Theodore Roosevelt. 160 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 160 

To Lawrence F. Abbott. 161 

VII. European War and Personal Concerns. 1914-1915 163 

Endorsement of Hoover — German Audacity — LL.D. 
from Alma Mater — England's Sea Policy — Christmas 
Letters 

Letters: 

To William J. Bryan. 163 

To John Crawford Burns. 164 

To Alexander Vogelsang. 165 

To John H. Wigmore. 165 

To John Crawford Burns. 166 

To Edward J. Wheeler. 167 

To John Crawford Burns. 168 

To William P. Lawlor. 17] 

To William G. McAdoo. 172 

To John Crawford Burns. 173 

To E. W. Scripps. 174 

To George W. Wickersham. 175 

To Frederic J. Lane. 177 

To John Crawford Burns. 178 

To Eugene A. Avery. 179 

To John F. Davis. 180 

To Dick Mead. 182 

To John Crawford Burns. 183 

To Sidney E. Mezes. 183 

To Cordenio Severance. 184 

To Frederick Dixon. 185 

To Robert H. Patchin. 186 

To Francis R. Wall. 187 

To John H. Wigmore. 188 

To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. 188 



CONTENTS xv 

To Mrs. Magnus Andersen. 190 

To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. 192 

VIII. American and Mexican Affairs. 1916 195 
On Writing English — Visit to Monticello — Citizenship 

for Indians — On Religion — American-Mexican Joint 

Commission 

Letters : 

To William M. Bole. 195 

To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. 196 

To Edward F. Adams. 198 

To Carl Snyder. 200 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane. 200 

To Will Irwin. 203 

To . 203 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 204 

To Frederic J. Lane. 205 

To Frank I. Cobb. 207 

To George W. Wickersham. 207 

To H. B. Brougham. 208 

To Frederic J. Lane. 210 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 211 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane. 212 

To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller. 215 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane. 216 

To William R. Wheeler. 222 

To James S. Harlan. 222 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 223 

To Alexander Vogelsang. 225 

To Frederic J. Lane. 226 

To Frank I. Cobb. 227 

To R. M. Fitzgerald. 228 

To James K. Moffitt. 229 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 229 

To Roland Cotton Smith. 231 

To James II. Barry. 231 

IX. Cabinet Talk and War Plans. 1917 233 

Cabinet Meetings — National Council of Defense — Berns- 

torjf — War — Plan for Railroad Consolidation — U-Boat 

Sinkings Revealed — Alaska 

Letters : 

To George W. Lane. 233 

To George W. Lane. 236 



xvi CONTENTS 

To George W. Lane. 238 

To Frank I. Cobb. 238 

To George W. Lane. 239 

To George W. Lane. 241 

To Edward J. Wheeler. 242 

To George W. Lane. 242 

To Frank I. Cobb. 245 

To George W. Lane. 245 

To George W. Lane. 250 

To Frank I. Cobb. 253 

To Will Irwin. 254 

To Robert Lansing. 255 

To Henry Lane Eno. 257 

To George B. Dorr. 257 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 258 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 261 

To John O'H. Cosgrave. 263 



X. Cabinet Notes in War-Time. 1918 264 
Notes on Cabinet Meetings — School Gardens — A Democ- 
racy Lacks Foresight — Use of Natio?ial Resources — 
Washington in War-time — The Sacrifice of War — Farms 
for Soldiers 

Letters: 

To Franklin K. Lane, Jr. 267 

To George W. Lane. 269 

To Albert Shaw. 271 

To Walter H. Page. 273 

To John Lyon. 278 

To Frank Lyon. 282 

To Miss Genevieve King. 282 

To John McNaught. 283 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 285 

To Allan Pollok. 290 

To E. S. Pillsbury. 291 

To William Marion Reedy. 292 

Notes on Cabinet Meetings. 293 

To Daniel Willard. - 300 

To James H. Hawley. 301 

To Samuel G. Blythe. 302 

To George W. Lane. 303 

To Edgar C. Bradley. 304 



CONTENTS xvii 

XI. After- War Problems — Leaving Washington. 1919 806 
After-war Problems — Roosevelt Memorials — Americani- 
zation — Religion — Responsibility of Press — Resigna- 
tion 

Letters: 

To E. C. Bradley. 306 

To George W. Lane. 307 

To George W. Lane. 308 

To William Boyce Thompson. 310 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 311 

To E. S. Martin. 311 

To George W. Lane. 312 

To Van H. Manning. 315 

To E. C. Bradley. 317 

To Mrs. Louise Herrick Wall. 318 

To . 318 

To M. A. Mathew. 319 

To Herbert C. Pell, Jr. 320 

To Henry P. Davison. 321 

To George W. Lane. 322 

To C. S. Jaekson. 323 

To John Crawford Burns. 324 

To Frank I. Cobb. 326 

To Mrs. Louise Herrick Wall. 328 

To Mrs. M. A. Andersen. 829 

To George W. Lane. 330 

To Daniel J. O'Neill. 332 

To Hamlin Garland. 333 

To Hugo K. Asher. 334 

To Admiral Cary Grayson. 335 

To Herbert C. Pell, Jr. 336 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson. 337 

To Frank W. Mondell. 338 

To Robert W. De Forest. 339 

XII. Political Counsel — Lincoln's Eyes. 1920 340 

Suggestions to Democratic Nominee for President — On 
Election of Senators — Lost Leaders — Lincoln's Eyes — 
William James's Letters 

Letters : 

To William Phelps Eno. 340 

To Roland Cotton Smith. 842 



xviii CONTENTS 

To James M. Cox. 343 

To Timothy Spellacy. 350 

To Edward L. Doheny. 351 

To Franklin D. Roosevelt. 351 

To Mrs. George Ehle. 352 

To Isadore B. Dockweiler. 354 

To Hall McAllister. 356 

To Mrs. George Ehle. 357 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 358 

To John W. Hallowell. 359 

To John W. Hallowell. 360 

To Robert Lansing. 362 

To Carl Snyder. 363 

To William R. Wheeler. 363 

To George Otis Smith. 364 

To George W. Wickersham. 365 

Lincoln's Eyes. 368 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 869 

To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. 372 

To Lathrop Brown. 372 

To Timothy Spellacy. 373 

To Frank I. Cobb. 373 

To John G. Gehring. 374 

To John W. Hallowell 375 

To John G. Gehring. 377 

XIII. Letters to Elizabeth. 1919-1920 381 

Letters: 

To Mrs. Ralph Ellis. 381 

XIV. Friends and the Great Hope. 1921 399 

Need for Democratic Program — Religious Faith — Men 
who have Influenced Thought — A Sounder Industrial Life 
— A Super-University for Ideas — "Z Accept" — Frag- 
ment 

Letters: 

To Mrs. Philip C. Kauffmann. 399 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 401 

To Lathrop Brown. 402 

To Mrs. George Ehle. 403 

To Mrs. William Phillips. 404 

To James H. Barry. 405 



CONTENTS xix 

To Michael A. Spellacy. 406 

To William R. Wheeler. 407 

To V. C. Scott O'Connor. 407 

Letter sent to several friends. 408 

To John G. Gehring. 410 

To Lathrop Brown. 411 

To Lathrop Brown. 413 

To Adolph C. Miller. 414 

To John G. Gehring. 415 

To John W. Hallowell. 421 

To Curt G. Pfeiffer. 422 

To John G. Gehring. 424 

To D. M. Reynolds. 425 

To Mrs. Cordenio Severance. 428 

To Alexander Vogelsang. 429 

To James S. Harlan. 429 

To Adolph C. Miller. 430 

To Lathrop Brown. 433 

To John G. Gehring. 434 

To John H. Wigmore. 435 

To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. 436 

To John W. Hallowell. 437 

To John G. Gehring. 438 

To Hall McAllister. 439 

To Mrs. Frederic Peterson. 440 

To Roland Cotton Smith. 441 

To John G. Gehring. 443 

To Adolph C. Miller. 445 

To Robert Lansing. 448 

To James D. Phelan. 449 

To Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hertle. 450 

To Alexander Vogelsang. 451 

To John Finley. 452 

To James H. Barry. 455 
To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. > 455 
To friends who had telegraphed and written for news. — "I accept." 456 

To Alexander Vogelsang. 462 

To John W. Hallowell. 462 

To Robert Lansing. 463 

Fragment. 464 

Index 467 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Franklin K. Lane Frontispiece 

Franklin K. Lane 6 

With his younger brothers. George and Frederic. 

Franklin K. Lane 1° 

At eighteen. 

Franklin K. Lane 34 

As City and County Attorney. 

Franklin K. Lane, Mrs. Lane, Mrs. Miller, and Adolph 
C. Miller 1*0 

Franklin K. Lane with Ethan Allen, Superintendent 
of Rainier National Park, Washington 204 

Franklin K. Lane and George B. Dorr 256 

In Lafayette National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. 

Franklin K. Lane in 1917 358 

Taken in Lafayette National Park. 

"Lane Peak," Tatoosh Range, Rainier National Park 462 



DATES 

1864. July 15. Born near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. 
1871-76. Taken to California. Went to Grammar School at Napa, Cali- 
fornia. 
1876. Went to Oakland, California. Oakland High School. 
1884-86. University of California, Berkeley, California. Special student. 
1885. Reporting on Alta California in San Francisco for John P. Irish. 

1887. Studied Hastings Law School. 

1888. Admitted to the Bar. 

1889. Special Newspaper Correspondent in New York for San Fran- 
cisco Chronicle. 

1891. Bought interest in Tacoma News and edited that paper. 

1892. Campaigned in New York for Cleveland. 

1893. Married. 

1895. Returned to California. Practiced law. 

1897-98. On Committee of One Hundred to draft new Charter for San 
Francisco. 

1898. Elected City and County Attorney to interpret new Charter. 

1899. Reelected City and County Attorney. 

1901. Reelected City and County Attorney. 

1902. Nominated for Governor of California on Democratic and Non- 
partisan Tickets. 

1903. Democratic vote in Legislature for United States Senator. 
1903. Nominated for Mayor of San Francisco. 

1905. December. Nominated by President Roosevelt as Interstate 
Commerce Commissioner. 

1906. June 29. Confirmed by Senate as Interstate Commerce Com- 
missioner. 

1909. Reappointed by President Taft as Interstate Commerce Com- 
missioner. 
1913. Appointed Secretary of the Interior under President Wilson. 
1916. Chairman American-Mexican Joint Commission. 



xxiv DATES 

1918. Chairman Railroad Wage Commission. 

1919. Chairman Industrial Conference. 

1920. March 1. Resigned from the Cabinet. 

1920. Vice-President of Pan-American Petroleum Company. 

1921. May 18. Died at Rochester, Minnesota. 



FAMILY NAMES 

Franklin K. Lane was the eldest of four children. 
Father: Christopher S. Lane. 
Mother: Caroline Burns. 
Brothers : George W. Lane. 

Frederic J. Lane. 
Sister: Maude (Mrs. M. A. Andersen). 
He was married to Anne Wintermute, and had two children: 

Franklin K. Lane, Jr. ("Ned"). 

Nancy Lane (Mrs. Philip C. Kauffmann). 



7 

THE LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 



THE LETTERS OF 

FRANKLIN K. LANE 



INTRODUCTION 

Youth — Education — Characteristics 

Although Franklin Knight Lane was only fifty-seven years 
old when he died, May 18, 1921, he had outlived, by many 
years, the men and women who had most influenced the 
shaping of his early life. Of his mother he wrote, in trying 
to comfort a friend, "The mystery and the ordering of 
this world grows altogether inexplicable. ... It requires 
far more religion or philosophy than I have, to say a real 
word that might console one who has lost those who are dear 
to him. Ten years ago my mother died, and I have never 
been reconciled to her loss." Again he wrote of her, to his 
sister, when their brother Frederic — the joyous, outdoor 
comrade of his youth — was in his last illness, "Dear Fritz, 
dear, dear boy, how I wish I could be there with him, though 
I could do no good. . . . Each night I pray for him, and 
I am so much of a Catholic, that I pray to the only Saint 
I know, or ever knew, and ask her to help. If she lives, 
her mind can reach the minds of the doctors. ... I don't 
need her to intercede with God, but I would like her to 
intercede with men. Why, Oh! why, do we not know 
whether she is or not ? Then all the Universe would be ex- 
plained to me." 

From those who knew him best from childhood, no word 
of him is left, and none from the two men whose strength 

l 



2 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

and ideality colored his morning at the University of Cali- 
fornia — Dr. George H. Howison, the "darling Howison" 
of the William James' Letters, and Dr. Joseph H. Le Conte, 
the wise and gentle geologist. "Names that were Sierras 
along my skyline," Lane said of such men. To Dr. Howi- 
son he wrote in 1913, when entering President Wilson's 
Cabinet, "No letter that I have ever received has given me 
more real pleasure than yours, and no man has been more 
of an inspiration than you." 

The sealing of almost every source of intimate knowledge 
of the boy, who was a mature man at twenty-two, has left 
the record of the early period curiously scant. Fortunately, 
there are in his letters and speeches some casual allusions 
to his childhood and youth, and a few facts and anecdotes 
of the period from members of his family, from school, col- 
lege, and early newspaper associates. In 1888, the story 
begins to gather form and coherence, for at that date we have 
the first of his own letters that have been preserved, written 
to his lifelong friend, John H. Wigmore. With many breaks, 
especially in the early chapters, the sequence of events, and 
his moods toward them, pour from him with increasing full- 
ness and spontaneity, until the day before he died. 

All the later record exists in his letters, most of them writ- 
ten almost as unconsciously as the heart sends blood to the 
remotest members of the body ; and they come back, now, 
in slow diastole, bearing within themselves evidence of the 
hour and day and place of their inception ; letters written 
with the stub of a pencil on copy-paper, at some sleepless 
dawn ; or, long ago, in the wide-spaced type of a primitive 
traveling typewriter, and dated, perhaps, on the Western 
desert, while he was on his way to secure water for thirsty 
settlers ; or dashed off in the glowing moment just after a 
Cabinet meeting, with the heat of the discussion still in 



INTRODUCTION 3 

his veins; others on the paper of the Department of the 
Interior, with the symbol of the buffalo — chosen by him 
— richly embossed in white on the corner, and other letters, 
soiled and worn from being long carried in the pocket and 
often re-read, by the brave old reformer who had hailed 
Lane when he first entered the lists. This is the part of 
the record that cannot be transcribed. 

Franklin Knight Lane was born on July 15, 1864, on his 
father's farm near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 
Canada, the eldest of four children, all born within a few 
years. The low, white farmhouse that is his birthplace 
still stands pleasantly surrounded by tall trees, and at one 
side a huge, thirty-foot hedge of hawthorn blooms each 
spring. His father, Christopher S. Lane, was at the time 
of his son's birth a preacher. Later, when his voice was 
affected by recurrent bronchitis, he became a dentist. 
Lane speaks of him several times in his letters as a Pres- 
byterian, and alludes to the strict orthodoxy of his father's 
faith, especially in regard to an active and personal devil. 

In 1917, when in the Cabinet, during President Wilson's 
second term of office, Lane wrote to his brother, "To-night 
we give a dinner to the Canadians, Sir George Foster, the 
acting Premier, and Sir Joseph Polk, the Under-Secretary 
of External Affairs, who, by the way, was born in Char- 
lottetown, Prince Edward Island, and says that he heard 
our father preach." 

But it was from his mother, whose maiden name was 
Caroline Burns, and who was of direct Scotch ancestry, 
that Franklin Lane drew most of his physical and many of 
his mental traits. From her he derived the firmly-modeled 
structure of his face; the watchful Scotch eyes; a fine 
white skin, that weathered to an even brown, later in life ; 



4 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

remarkably sound teeth, large and regular, giving firm sup- 
port to the round contour of the face ; and the fresh line of 
his lips, that was a marked family trait. A description 
of him, when he was candidate for Governor of California, 
at thirty-eight, was written by Grant Wallace. Cleared 
of some of the hot sweetness of a campaign rhapsody it 
reads : — 

"Picture a man a little above the average height . . . 
with the deep chest and deep voice that always go with the 
born leader of men ; the bigness and strength of the hands 
. . . the clear eye and broad, firm, and expressive mouth, 
and the massive head that suggests irresistibly a combina- 
tion of Napoleon and Ingersoll." 

These two resemblances, to Napoleon and to Robert In- 
gersoll, were frequently rediscovered by others, in later 
years. 

The description concludes by saying, "That Lane is a 
man of earnestness and vigorous action is shown in . . . 
every movement. You sit down to chat with him in his 
office. As he grows interested in the subject, he kicks his 
chair back, thrusts his hands way to the elbows in his trouser 
pockets and strides up and down the room. With deepen- 
ing interest he speaks more rapidly and forcibly, and charges 
back and forth across the carpet with the heavy tread of a 
grenadier." As an older man this impetuosity was some- 
what modified. What an early interviewer called his "frank 
man-to-manness " became a manner of grave and cordial 
concentration. With the warm, full grasp of his hand in 
greeting, he gave his complete attention to the man before 
him. That, and his rich, strong laugh of pleasure, and the 
varied play of his moods of earnestness, gayety, and chal- 
lenge, are what men remember best. 

Lane's native bent from the first was toward public life. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

His citizenship was determined when his father decided to 
take his family to California, to escape the severity of the 
Canadian climate. In 1902, Franklin Lane was asked how 
he became an American. "By virtue of my father's citizen- 
ship," he replied, "I have been a resident of California since 
seven years of age, excepting during a brief absence in New 
York and Washington." 

In 1871, the mother, father, and four children, after visit- 
ing two brothers of Mrs. Lane's on the way, finally reached 
the town of Napa, California. 

"They came," says an old schoolmate of Napa days, 
"bringing with them enough of the appearance and man- 
nerisms of their former environment to make us young- 
sters 'sit up and take notice,' for the children were dressed 
in kilts, topped by handsome black velvet and silk plaid 
caps. However, these costumes were soon discarded, for 
at school the children found themselves the center of both 
good- and bad-natured gibes, until they were glad to dress as 
was the custom here." The "Lane boys," he says, were 
then put into knee-trousers, "and Franklin, who was large 
for his age and quite stout, looked already too old for this 
style," and so continued to be annoyed by the children, 
until he put a forcible end to it. "He 'licked' one of the 
ringleaders," says the chronicler, and won to peace. "As 
we grew to know Franklin . . . his right to act became 
accepted. . . . There was always something about his 
personality which made one feel his importance." 

The little California community was impressed by the 
close intimacy of the home-life of the Canadian family — 
closer than was usual in hurriedly settled Western towns. 
The father found time to take all three boys on daily walks. 
Another companion remembers seeing them starting off to- 
gether for a day's hunting and fishing. But it was the 



6 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

mother, who read aloud to them and told them stories and 
exacted quick obedience from them, who was the real power 
in the house. There were regular family prayers, and fam- 
ily singing of hymns and songs. 

This last custom survived among the brothers and sister 
through all the years. Even after all had families of their 
own, and many cares, some chance reunion, or a little family 
dinner would, at parting, quicken memory and, with hats 
and coats already on, perhaps, in readiness to separate to 
their homes, they would stand together and shout, in uni- 
son, some song of the hour or some of their old Scotch melo- 
dies with that pleasant harmony of voices of one timbre, 
heard only in family singing. 

Lane had a baritone of stirring quality, coming straight 
from his big lungs, and loved music all his life. In the 
last weeks of his life he more than once wrote of his 
pleasure in his brother's singing. At Rochester, a few 
days before his operation, he reassured an anxious friend by 
writing, "My brother George is here, with his splendid 
philosophy and his Scotch songs." 

His love and loyalty to past ties, though great and per- 
sistent, still left his ideal of loyalty unsatisfied. Toward 
the end of his life he wrote, "Roots we all have and we must 
not be torn up from them and flung about as if we were 
young things that could take hold in any soil. I have been 
— America has been — too indifferent to roots — home 
roots, school roots. . . . We should love stability and 
tradition as well as love adventure and advancement." 
But the practical labors of his life were directed toward 
creating means to modify tradition in favor of a larger sort 
of justice than the past had known. 

Resignation had no part in his political creed. "I hold 
with old Cicero 'that the whole glory of virtue is in ac- 




FRANKLIN - K. LANK WITH HIS YOUNGER BROTHERS, GEORGE 

AND FREDERIC 



INTRODUCTION 7 

tivity,'" comes from him with the ring of authentic tem- 
perament. And of a friend's biography he wrote, ''What a 
fine life — all fight, interwoven with fun and friendship." 

All the anecdotes of his boyhood show him in action, mov- 
ing among his fellows, organizing, leading, and administer- 
ing rough-and-tumble justice. 

From grammar school in Napa he went, for a time, to a 
private school called Oak Mound. In vacation, when he 
was eleven years old, he was earning money as messenger- 
boy, and at about that time as general helper to one of the 
merchants of the little town. He left in his old employer's 
mind the memory of a boy "exceedingly bright and enter- 
prising." He recalls a fight that he was told about, between 
Lane "and a boy of about his size," "and Frank licked 
him," the old merchant exults, "and as he walked away he 
said, 'If you want any more, you can get it at the same 
place.'" 

It was in Napa — so he could not have been quite twelve 
years old — that Lane started to study Spanish, so that he 
might talk more freely to the ranchers, who drove to town 
in their rickety little carts, to "trade" at the stores. 

In 1876, the family moved from the full sunshine of the 
valley town, with its roads muffled in pale dust, and its hill- 
sides lifting up the green of riotous vines, to Oakland, cool 
and cloudy, with a climate to create and sustain vigor. In 
Oakland, just across the bay from San Francisco, Lane en- 
tered the High School. Again his schoolmates recall him 
with gusto. He was muscular in build, "a good short-dis- 
tance runner." His hands — always very characteristic of the 
man — were large and well-made, strong to grasp but not 
adroit in the smaller crafts of tinkering. "He impressed 
me," an Oakland schoolmate writes, "as a sturdy youngster 
who had confidence in himself and would undoubtedly get 



8 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

what he went after. Earnest and straightforward in man- 
ner," and always engrossed in the other boys, "when they 
walked down Twelfth Street, on their way to school, they 
had their arms around each other's shoulders, discussing 
subjects of 'vast importance.'" 

His capacity for organized association developed rapidly. 
He had part in school orations, amateur plays, school and 
Sunday school clubs. Many of these he seems to have ini- 
tiated, so that, with his school work, his life was full. He 
says somewhere that by the time he was sixteen he was 
earning his own way. His great delight in people, and es- 
pecially in the thrust and parry of controversial talk, held 
him from the solitary pleasures of fishing and hunting, so 
keenly relished by his two younger brothers. One of them 
said of him, "Frank can't even enjoy a view from a moun- 
tain-peak without wanting to call some one up to share it 
with him." He writes of his feeling about solitary nature to 
his friend George Dorr, in 1917, in connection with improve- 
ments for the new National Park, near Bar Harbor, "A 
wilderness, no matter how impressive or beautiful does not 
satisfy this soul of mine (if I have that kind of a thing) . It 
is a challenge to man. It says, 'Master me! Put me to 
use ! Make me more than I am !' About his "need of a 
world of men," he was equally candid. To his wife he 
writes, "I am going to dinner, and before I go alone into a 
lonesome club, I must send a word to you. . . . The world is 
all people to me. I lean upon them. They induce thought 
and fancy. They give color to my life. Thrown on myself 
I am a stranded bark." . . . 

His love for cooperation and for action, "dramatic action," 
some one says, never left him. In his last illness, in apoliti- 
cal crisis, he rallied the energy of younger men. He wrote 
of the need of a Democratic program, suggested a group of 



INTRODUCTION 9 

compelling names, "or any other group," he adds, "put 
up the plan and ask them what they think of it — tenta- 
tively — just a quiet chat, but start!" And about the 
same matter he wrote, "The time has come. Now strike !" 

To a friend wavering over her fitness for a piece of pro- 
jected work, he said drily, "There is only one way to do a 
thing, and that is to do it." Late in life, the summation of 
this creed of action seemed to come when he confessed, "I 
cannot get over the feeling that we are here as conquerors, 
not as pacifists." 

And words, written and spoken words, were to him, 
of course, the instrument of conquest. But the search for 
the fit and shining word for his mark did not become research. 
In a droll letter, about how he put simpler English into the 
Department of the Interior, he tells of finding a letter written 
by one of the lawyers of the Department to an Indian about 
his title to land, that was "so involved and elaborately 
braided and beaded and fringed that I could not understand 
it myself." So he sent the ornate letter back and had it put 
into "straightaway English." 

His own practicable English he believed he had learned 
through his newspaper training. He first worked in the 
printing office of the Oakland Times, then became a reporter 
for that paper. He went campaigning and made speeches 
for the Prohibition candidate for Governor in 1884 — before 
he was twenty-one. The next year he was reporting for the 
Alta California, edited by Colonel John P. Irish, himself a 
fiery orator, of the denunciatory type. Colonel Irish recalls 
that he was at once impressed with the " copious and ex- 
cellent vocabulary" of his ambitious reporter, who was, 
even then, he says, "determined upon a high and useful 
career." In a letter to Colonel Irish, in 1913, Lane wrote, 
" That simple little card of yours was a good thing for me. 



10 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

It took me for a minute out of the maelstrom of pressing 
business and carried me back, about thirty years, to the 
time when I was a boy working for you — an unbaked, 
ambitious chap, who did not know where he was going, but 
was trying to get somewhere." 

It is interesting to notice that in youth he did not suffer 
from the usual phases of revolt from early teachings. His 
father was a Prohibitionist, and Lane's first campaign was 
for a Prohibition candidate for Governor; his father had 
been a preacher and Lane, when very young, thought seri- 
ously of becoming a minister, so seriously that he came 
before an examining board of the Presbyterian church. 
After two hours of grilling, he was, though found wanting, 
not rejected, but put upon a six months' probation — the 
elders probably dreaded to lose so persuasive a tongue for 
the sake of a little "insufficiency of damnation" in his creed. 
One of his inquisitors, a Presbyterian minister, went from 
the ordeal with Lane, and continued to try to convert him 
to the tenets of Presbyterianism. Then suddenly, at some 
turn of the talk, the clergyman abandoned his position and 
said carelessly, "Well, Lane, why not become a Unitarian 
preacher?" 

The boy who had been walking the floor at night in the 
struggle to reconcile the teachings of the church with his 
own doubts — knowing that Eternal Damnation was held 
to be the reward for doubt of Christ's divinity — was so 
horrified by the casuistry of the man who could be an ortho- 
dox minister and yet speak of preaching as just one way to 
make a living, that he swung sharply from any wish to enter 
the church. 

The strictness of the orthodoxy of his home had not 
served to alienate his sympathies, but he was chilled to the 
heart by this indifference. He remembered the episode all 










FRANKLIN K. LANE AT EIGHTEEN 



INTRODUCTION 11 

his life with emotion, but he was not embittered by it. He 
was young, a great lover, greatly in love with life. 

In 1884, when he entered the University of California, 
it was as a special not as a regular student. "I put myself 
through college," he writes to a boy seeking advice on edu- 
cation, "by working during vacation and after hours, and I 
am very glad I did it." He seems to have arranged all his 
college courses for the mornings and carried his reporting 
and printing-office work the last half of the day. 

College at once offered a great forum for debate, and a 
richer comradeship with men of strong mental fiber. Lane's 
eagerness in discussion and love of large and sounding words 
made the students call him "Demosthenes Lane." In his 
letters it is easy to trace the gradual evolution from his early 
oratorical style into a final form of free, imaginative ex- 
pression of great simplicity. Meanwhile, as he debated, he 
gathered to himself men who were to be friends for the rest 
of his life. The "Sid" of the earliest letters that we have 
is Dr. Sidney E. Mezes, now President of the College of the 
City of New York, to whom one of his last letters was ad- 
dressed. His friendship for Dr. Wigmore, Dean of Law at 
the Northwestern University, in Chicago, dates almost as 
far back. 

In college, Lane seized what he most wanted in courses 
on Philosophy and Economics. "His was a mind of many 
facets and hospitable in its interest," says his college and 
lifelong friend, Adolph C. Miller, " but his years at Berkeley 
were devoted mainly to the study of Philosophy and Govern- 
ment, and kindred subjects. He was a leading figure in the 
Political Science Club, and intent in his pursuit of phi- 
losophy. Often he could be seen walking back and forth in 
a room in the old Bacon library, set apart for the more seri- 
ous-minded students, with some philosophical book in hand ; 



12 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

every line of his face expressing deep concentration, the 
occasional light in his eye clearly betraying the moment when 
he was feeling the joy of understanding." 

In two years, not waiting for formal graduation, Lane was 
back in the world of public affairs that he had scarcely left. 
In the same short-cut way he took his Hastings Law 
School work, and passed his Supreme Court examination 
in 1888, in much less than the time usually allowed for the 
work. 

By the time he left the law school, "a full fledged, but not 
a flying attorney," his desire for aggressive citizenship was 
fully formed. In fact, the whole active campaign, that was 
his life, was made by the light of early ideals, enlarged and 
reinterpreted as his climb to power brought under his survey 
wider horizons. 

The sketchiest summary of his early and late activities 
brings out the singleness of the central purpose moving 
through his life. His first fight, in 1888, for Ballot Reform 
was made that the will of the people of the State might be 
honestly interpreted ; later, in Tacoma, Washington, he 
sided with his printers, against his interest as owner, in their 
fight to maintain union wages ; once more in San Francisco, 
he took, without a retaining fee, the case of the blackmailed 
householders whose titles were threatened by the pretensions 
of the Noe claimants, and with his brother, cleared title to all 
of their small homes ; he joined, with his friend, Arthur Mc- 
Ewen, in an editorial campaign against the Southern Pacific, 
in the day of its tyrannous power over all the shippers 
of California; later he drafted into the charter of San 
Francisco new provisions to improve the wages of all city 
employees ; as its young city and county attorney, he 
aggressively protected the city against street railway en- 
croachments, successfully enforcing the law against infrac- 



INTRODUCTION 13 

i 

tions ; as Interstate Commerce Commissioner, he disen- 
tangled a network of injustices in the relations between 
shippers and railroads, exposed rebating and demurrage 
evils ; formulated new procedures in deflating, reorganizing, 
and zoning the business of all the express companies in 
the country ; as Secretary of the Interior, he confirmed to 
the people a fuller use of Federal Lands, and National Park 
Reserves, laid the foundation for the development, on public 
domain, of water powers, and the leasing of Government 
oil lands, and built the Government railroad in Alaska ; 
during the War, he contributed to the Council of National 
Defense his inexhaustible enthusiasm for cooperation, with 
definite plans for swift action, to focus National resources 
to meet war needs ; and finally, his last carefully elaborated 
plan — killed by a partisan Congress — was to place returned 
soldiers upon the land under conditions of hopeful and de- 
cent independence. These were some of the "glories" of 
activity into which he poured the resources of his energy 
and imagination. 

But no catalogue of the work or the salient mental charac- 
teristics of Franklin Lane gives a picture of the man, without 
taking into account his temperament, for that colored every 
hour of his life, and every act of his career. The things 
that he knew seized his imagination. Even when a middle- 
aged man he sang, like a troubadour, of the fertility of the 
soil ; he was stirred by the virtue and energy of what he 
saw and touched ; his heart leaped at the thought of the 
power of water ready to be unlocked for man's use — most 
happy in that the thing that was his he could love. 

"To lose faith in the future of oil !" he cries, in the midst 
of a sober statistical letter, "Why! that is as unthinkable 
as to lose faith in your hands. Oil, coal, electricity, what 
are these but multiplied and more adaptable, super-service- 



14 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

able hands? They may temporarily be unemployed, but 
the world can't go round without them." A man who feels 
poetry in petroleum suffers from no wistful "desire of the 
moth for the star." To his full sense of life the moth and 
the star are of one essential substance, parts of one glorious 
conquerable creation — and the moth just a fleck of star- 
dust, with silly wings. 

In truth, both then and throughout most of the days of his 
life he was completely oriented in this world, at home here, 
with his strong feet planted upon reality. He liked so many 
homely things, that his friendly glance responded to common 
sunlight without astigmatism. 

That his sympathies should have outrun his repugnances 
was of great practical moment in what he was able to achieve 
in a life shortened at both ends, for though he had to lose 
time by earning his own professional equipment, he lost little 
energy in friction. He wrote to a political aspirant for high 
office, in 1921, "Pick a few enemies and pick them with 
discretion. Chiefly be for things." To a man who was 
making a personal attack on an adversary of Lane's, while 
in 1914, as Secretary of the Interior, he was engrossed in 
establishing his "conservation-by-use" policy, in opposition 
to the older and narrower policy of conservation by with- 
drawal, Lane wrote, "I have never seen any good come by 
blurring an issue by personal conflict or antagonisms. . . . 
I have no time to waste in fighting people ... to fight for 
a thing the best way is to show its advantages, and the 
need for it . . . and my only solicitude is that the things 
I care for should not be held back by personal disputes." . . . 

This lesson he had learned more from his own tempera- 
ment than from political expediency. It was bound up in 
his love of efficiency and also in his sense of humor. During 
this same hot conservation controversy he writes to an old 



INTRODUCTION 15 

friend, "I have no intention of saying anything in reply 
to Pinchot. He wrote me thirty pages to prove that I was 
a liar, and rather than read that again I will admit the fact." 

This preoccupation with the main issue, in getting bene- 
ficial results was one thing that made him glad to acclaim 
and use the gifts of other men. Through his sympathies 
he could follow as well as lead, and he caught enthusiasms 
as well as kindled them. He believed in enthusiasm for it- 
self, and because he saw in it one of the great potencies of 
life. In writing of D'Annunzio's placing Italy beside the 
Allies, he rejoices in the beautiful spectacle of the spirit of a 
whole people "blown into flame by a poet-patriot." But 
"the ideal," he urges, "must be translated into the possible. 
Man cannot live by bread alone — nor on manna." 

His gay and challenging attitude toward life expressed 
only one mood, for he paid, as men must, for intense buoy- 
ancy of temper by black despairs. "Damn that Irish tem- 
perament, anyway !" he writes. "O God, that I had been 
made a stolid, phlegmatic, non-nervous, self-satisfied Brit- 
isher, instead of a wild cross between a crazy Irishman 
with dreams, desires, fancies — and a dour Scot with his 
conscience and his logical bitterness against himself — and 
his eternal drive !" 

His exaggerations of hope and his moods of broken dis- 
appointment, his ever-springing faith in men, and in the 
possibility of just institutions, were more temperamental 
than logical. Moods of astonished grief, when men showed 
greed and instability, gave place to humorous and tolerant 
analysis of characters and events. Even his loyalty to his 
friends was subject to the slight magnetic deflections of a 
man of moods. He was true to them as the needle to the 
pole ; and with just the same piquing oscillations, before 
the needle comes to rest at the inevitable North. 



16 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Because he had caught, in its capricious rhythms, the 
subtle movements of human intercourse he trusted himself 
to express to other men the natural man within his breast, 
without fear of misconstruction. He contrived to human- 
ize, in parts, even his government reports. They brought 
him, year by year, touching letters of gratitude from weary 
political writers. The patient, logical Scot in him that said, 
"I am going to take this thing up bit by bit without trying 
to get a whole philosophy into the work," anchored him to 
the heaviest tasks as if he were a true-born plodder, while 
the "wild Irishman" with dreams and desires lighted the 
way with gleams of Will-o'-the-Wisp. The quicksilver in 
the veins of the patient Mercutio of railroad rates and de- 
murrage charges lightened his work for himself and others. 
Just as in the five years when he served San Francisco, as 
City and County Attorney, he labored to such effect that 
not one of his hundreds of legal opinions was reversed by 
the Supreme Court of the State, so he toiled on these same 
Annual Reports, so immersed that, as he says, "I even have 
to take the blamed stuff to bed with me." Fourteen and 
sixteen hours at his official desk were not his longest hours, 
and sometimes he snatched a dinner of shredded biscuit from 
beside the day's accumulations of papers upon his heaped-up 
desk. He laid upon himself the burden of labor, examining 
and cross-examining men for hours upon a single point of 
essential fact — quick to detect fraud and intolerant of hum- 
bug, — but infinitely patient with those who were merely 
dull, evading no drudgery, and, above all, never evading 
the dear pains of building-up and maintaining friendship. 

Louise Herrick Wall 
March, 192$ 



II 

POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 

1884-1894 

Politics — Newspaper Work — New York — Buying into Tacoma 
News — Marriage — Sale of Newspaper 

Franklin K. Lane's earliest political association, in Cali- 
fornia, after reaching manhood, was with John H. Wig- 
more. Wigmore had returned from Harvard, in 1883, with 
a plan, already matured, for Civic Reform. The Municipal 
Reform League, created by Wigmore, Lane, and several 
other young men, was to follow the general outline of boss 
control, by precinct and ward organization, the difference 
being that the League members were to hold no offices, en- 
joy no spoils, and work for clean city politics. Each member 
of the inner circle was to take over and make himself re- 
sponsible for a definite city district, making a card index of 
the name of each voter, taking a real part in all caucus meet- 
ings — in saloon parlors or wherever they were held — and 
studying practical politics at first hand. "Blind Boss 
Buckley" was the Democratic dictator of San Francisco, 
and against his regime the initial efforts of the League were 
directed. 

It was a giant's task, an impossible task, for a small group 
of newspaper writers and college undergraduates. The 
short career of the Municipal Reform League ended when 
Wigmore went East to study law, leaving Lane determined 

17 



18 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

to increase his efficiency by earning his way through college 
and the Hastings Law School. 

The first letters of this volume follow the theme of the 
political interests of the two young men. 



To John H. Wigmore 

Oakland, February 27, 1888 

My dear Wigmore, — I am thinking of getting back in 
your part of the world myself, and this is what I especially 
wanted to write you about. I desire to see the world, to 
rub off some of my provincialisms, to broaden a little before 
I settle down to a prosaic existence. So, as I say, I want to 
live in Boston awhile and my only possibility of so doing is 
to get a position on some Boston paper, something that will 
afford me a living and allow some little time for social and 
literary life. However I don't care much what the billet 
is. I can bring letters of recommendation from all the good 
newspaper men in San Francisco, both as to my ability at 
editorial work (I have done considerable for the San Fran- 
cisco News Letter and Examiner) , and at all kinds of repor- 
torial work. . . . 

I passed the law examination before the Supreme Court 
last month, so I am now a full-fledged — but not a flying, 
attorney. I have not determined definitely on going into 
law. . . . 

Politically speaking we Mugwumps out here are happy. 
. . . California has been opposed to Cleveland on every 
one of his great proposals (civil service reform, silver ques- 
tion, tariff reform), and yet the Republicans must nominate 
a very strong man to get this State this year. The people 
admire old Grover's strength so much, he is a positive man 
and an honest man, and when the people see these two ex- 



POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 19 

ceptional virtues mixed happily in a candidate they grow 
to love and admire him out of the very idealism of their na- 
tures. 

But I must not bother the Boston attorney any longer. 
Write me all you know of opportunities there and believe 
me always your friend, 

Frank K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

Oakland, May 9, 1888 

My dear Wigmore, — Of course I would have to stand my 
chances in getting a position. Newspaper men, perhaps 
more than any other class, are rated by ability. Civil Serv- 
ice Reform principles rule in every good newspaper office 
to their fullest extent. When I wrote you, I was unsettled 
as to my plans for the coming year. My brother desired to 
spend a year or so in Boston and I thought of accompanying 
him. He has changed his plans and so have I. . . . I 
am regularly on the Chronicle staff, chiefly writing sensa- 
tional stories. I get a regular salary of twenty-five dollars 
a week besides some extras, and have as easy and pleasant 
a billet as there is on the paper, though editorial work would 
be more to my liking. 

These arrangements do not interfere, however, with my 
Boston plan, for sooner or later I shall breathe its intellec- 
tual atmosphere, that I may outgrow provincialism and 
become intellectual by force of habit rather than will. How 
long it will be before the wish can be gratified I cannot tell. 
Probably next year. You see the law is not altogether after 
my taste. I feel it a waste of time to spend days quarreling 
like school-boys over a few hundred dollars. I feel all the 
time as if I must be engaged in some life work which will 
make more directly for the good of my fellows. I feel the 



20 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

need which the world manifests for broader ideas in econom- 
ics, politics, the philosophy of life, and all social questions. 
Feeling so, I cannot coop myself in a law library behind a 
pile of briefs, spending my days and nights in search of some 
authority which will save my client's dollar. I am unset- 
tled, however, as to my permanent work. . . . 

Oakland, September 20, 1888 

. . . The copies of the Massachusetts law have been duly 
received and put to the best of use. On my motion our 
Young Men's League appointed a Committee to draft a 
law for presentation to the Legislature. Judge Maguire, 
Ferd, 1 and two others, with myself, are on that Committee 
and we are hard at work. I send to-day a copy of the Ex- 
aminer containing a ballot reform bill just introduced by 
the Federated Trades. It is based on the New York law 
but is very faulty. We are working with that bill as a 
basis, proposing various and very necessary amendments. 
We hope to get our bill adopted in Committee as a substi- 
tute for the one introduced, and believe that the Federated 
Trades will be perfectly willing to adopt our measure. . . . 

Tell me, please, how you select your election officials in 
your large cities. Our mode of selection is really the weak 
point with us, for no matter how good a law we might pro- 
cure, its enforcement would be left to "boss" tools — cor- 
ruptionists of the worst class. . . . 

Oakland, December 2, 1888 

. . . Your letter breathes the sentiments of thousands of 
Republicans who voted against Cleveland. They are now 
"just a little" sorry that so good a man is beaten. I never 

1 Ferdinand Vassault, a college friend. 



POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 21 

quite understood your political position. Your letter to 
Ferd giving your reason was, I must say, not conclusive, for 
I cannot believe that you can find a greater field of use- 
fulness or power in the Republican than in the Demo- 
cratic party, surely not now that the new Democracy — 
a party aggressive, filled with the reform spirit, and right 
in the direction it takes, now that such a party is in the 
field. 

You surely ought to join us on the tariff fight, but then I 
wish you the best of fortune whatever your choice. 

Ferd and several others with myself are now organizing 
what will some day be a great state, if not a great national 
institution. We call it the Young Men's Democratic 
League 1 — it is to be made up of young men from twenty- 
one to forty-five ; its scope — national politics, election of 
President and Congressmen, and its immediate purpose to 
inform the people on the tariff question. When our Con- 
stitution is published you shall have one. We expect to 
organize branches all over the State and in a year or two 
will be strong in the thousands. 

Your election article was of a singular kind but very good. 
I have loaned it out among the old crowd. I spoke of it to 
Judge Sullivan, who is compiling authorities on the "in- 
tention of the voter" as governing, where the spelling is 
wrong on a ballot. Sullivan ran for Supreme Justice and 
ran thousands ahead of his ticket (the Democratic) but 
thinks that he was defeated by votes thrown out in Alameda 
and Los Angeles counties because of irregularities in the 
ballot — in one case his initials were printed "J. D." in- 
stead of "J. F." — in another instance, his name was 
printed a little below the title of the office, because of the 

1 This plan seems to have been to enlarge the influence of the League mentioned 
in a former letter. 



22 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

narrowness of the ticket. If these ballots were counted 
for him he thinks he would have won. . . . 

Fourteen years later, when the electoral count was made 
of Franklin K. Lane's ballots for Governor of the State of 
California, between eight and ten thousand ballots were 
thrown out on similar ground of "irregularities," and he 
was counted out, "the intention of the voter" being again 
frustrated. 

To John H. Wig more 

San Francisco, California, January 29, 1889 

My dear Wigmore, — ... I want to report progress. We 
now have our bill complete. . . . The bill I send has been 
adopted by the Federated Trades and will be substituted 
by them for their bill now before the House. . . . 

On Saturday evening there will be one of those huge 
"spontaneous" mass meetings (which require so much prep- 
aration) in support and endorsement of the bill. The 
most prominent men in both Houses of the Legislature will 
speak. . . . 

San Francisco, February 17, 1889 

... I never have been busier in my life than in the 
last two weeks. Ballot Reform has taken up a very great 
portion of my time. I have just returned from a lobbying 
trip to Sacramento. The bill will not pass, though the best 
men in both Houses favor it. I went up on the invitation 
of the chairman of the Assembly Committee to address the 
Committee. I spoke for an hour and a half. At the end 
of that time only one man in the group openly opposed the 
scheme, and he confessed that the bill would do just what I 
claimed for it, and made this confession to the Committee. 



POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 23 

"But," said he, "it tends to the disintegration of political 
parties and as they are essential to our life we must not 
help on their destruction. " . . . 

The Committee of the Senate decided without any debate 
on the bill to report adversely to it. I got them to reconsider 
their vote, and we will have a hearing at any rate before the 
bill is killed. The Legislature is altogether for boodle. . . . 

Your book has been of the greatest assistance to me. I 
virtually made my speech from it and left the book with the 
chairman of the Committee at his special request. ... If 
it had come out a month sooner we would have stood fifty 
per cent better chance of getting the bill through, because 
the papers would have come to the front so much sooner 
and we would have been thirty days ahead with our bill. I 
tell you I felt quite proud in addressing the distinguished 
legislature to refer to "my friend Wigmore's book." . . . 



San Francisco, May 10, 1889 

... I am coming nearer to you. On Monday I leave to 
take up my residence in New York, as correspondent for 
the San Francisco Chronicle. I do not know where I will 
be located, but mail addressed to me at the Hoffman House 
will reach me when I arrive, which will be in about ten days. 

My purpose is to breathe a new atmosphere for a while so 
that I may broaden. We must make arrangements soon 
to meet. I want to know your New York reform friends. . . . 



New York, June 21, 1889 

. . . This lapse of a couple of weeks means that I have 
been enjoying the delights of a New York summer, in which 
only slaves work and many of these find refuge in suicide. . . . 



24 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Not a single reformer, big or little, have I yet met. Your 
friend Bishop 1 I have not called on, though I have twice 
started to do so, and have been switched off. ... I will 
go within a couple of days for the spirit must be revived. 
One day early in this week I had an intense desire to visit 
you immediately and was almost on the verge of letting 
things go and rush off, but duty held me. . . . 

I see that Bellamy has captured Higginson, Savage, and 
others and that they are going to work over the Kinsley- 
Maurice business. Well, I would to God it would work. 
Something to make life happier and steadier for these poor 
women and men who toil and never get beyond a piece of 
meat and a cot ! There is justification here for a social- 
economic revolution and it will come, too, if things are not 
bettered. 

If you have a stray thought let me know it and soon. 
Your friend, 

F. K. L. 

Lane's desire for stimulating companionship in New York 
was quickly gratified. A spontaneous association of friend- 
ships, based upon a young delight in life and a vast curiosity 
of the mind, sprang up among a little group of men of very 
diverse types. All were strangers in New York with no 
immediate home ties. "Women played no part in our 
lives," one of them recalls. "We came together to discuss 
plays, poetry, politics, anything and everything — the great 
actors, comic operas, the songs of the streets, science, poli- 
tics." John Crawford Burns, Lane, Brydon Lamb, Curt 
Pfeiffer formed the nucleus of what spread out irregularly 
into larger groupings. 

John Crawford Burns, who was slightly older than the 

1 Joseph Bucklin Bishop, editor of Theodore Roosevelt and His Time. 



POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 25 

rest, a purist, and something of a "dour Scot," was a man 
of conservative and cultivated tastes and the dean of the 
group. He was in a business house that imported linens, 
and lived in a "glorious room with two outside windows, 
and ample seating capacity," so the friends often met there 
and learned something of Gothic architecture and of the 
abominations of slang, in spite of themselves. With Burns, 
and of his firm, was Brydon Lamb, " also of Scotch descent, 
but born in America, a delightful combination of strength, 
sweetness and light. The simple grace of his manner, his 
unhurried speech, his urbanity, captivated us all. We 
loved him for what he was, and we considered him our 
arbiter elegantiarum." Of Lane at that period the same 
friend writes, "I remember a fine, stocky, muscular pres- 
ence with a striking head. A massive, commanding man, 
he was, a persuasive and compelling leader." But none of 
the men had any sense of anything but complete friendly, 
boyish equality. "Lane was," Pfeiffer says, "interested 
in human beings, not problems, excepting as their solution 
might be made serviceable to the needs of individuals. He 
had great tolerance for the most unusual opinions. I don't 
think Lane ever had much interest in the dogmas of science, 
religion, or philosophy ; he lived by the spirit of them, that 
cannot be expressed in formulae. He had the peculiar 
sensitiveness of a poet for words, for colors and sounds, and 
for moral beauty, and blended with it the statesman's ob- 
servant awareness of conditions in the world of affairs." 

At the beginning of their friendship, in 1889, Curt Pfeiffer 
himself was only nineteen years old, a youth whose family 
had come from Holland and Germany. He appeared in 
the boarding-house on 32nd near Broadway, where Burns 
lived, fresh from three months at the Paris Exposition, a 
vacation that had followed a course of scientific study at 



26 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Zurich, Switzerland. The wonders of Paris, a-glitter with 
the blaze of undreamed-of electrical beauty, and the greater 
wonder of the scientific discoveries and speculations, of the 
eighties, as taught at the University of Zurich, gave the 
young traveler an instant place among the others. Because 
of his love for exact statement and his scientific approach 
in discussion, young as he was, he contributed something 
very real to the group whose chief preoccupation — aside 
from the joy of living — was with art, government, and 
literature. 

They read separately, and when a book seemed intolerably 
good to the discoverer, he brought it in and insisted on their 
reading parts of it together. Browning, Darwin, the Vedic 
Hymns, Stevenson, Taine, Buckle, Spencer, Kipling, Sir 
Henry Maine, on primitive law, and Emerson ! The rela- 
tion of the men was almost impersonal in the fervor of their 
explorations into life. Differences of blood and tradition 
were not only easily bridged but welcomed, because they 
assured, to the group as a whole, sharper angles of mental 
refraction — breaking the ray of truth they sought into 
more of its component colors. 

Pfeiffer recalls that "one Saturday night, under the in- 
fluence of reading from the Vedic Hymns, and a talk on 
astronomy, we went up on the roof of our boarding-place, 
and observed a complete revolution of the starry heavens, 
from dusk to dawn. We drifted into talk, . . . and when 
we finally descended to our beds on Sunday morning, we 
found ourselves drenched to the skin from the drizzling dew. 
We never forgot that experience, but we never repeated it 
either." 

His political interests brought Lane into the Reform 
Club where Progress and Poverty, Henry George's new 
book, was the center for discussion upon the whole problem 



POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 27 

of the distribution of taxation. Lane and Henry George 
established a cordial friendship. 

John Crawford Burns says that in 1889 "Lane's chief 
hero was Cleveland, and his oracle Godkin, of the Evening 
Post" — later, the Nation. "When I knew him in New 
York he represented a San Francisco newspaper, the Chron- 
icle, I think, as correspondent. He was not whole-heartedly 
in sympathy with his proprietor, nor indeed with the sen- 
sational aspect of journalism, and he always scoffed at the 
idea of newspaper writers constituting a modern priesthood. 
He laughingly justified his association with the Chronicleby 
saying he gave tone to it. For this and other services, he 
received, I think, two thousand dollars a year, which even 
thirty years ago did not admit of luxury and riotous living." 

Lane's whole stay in New York was less than two years 
in length, but the vital ideas that he shared with disinterested 
minds made of this period the seed-bed for future intellectual 
growth. 

In 1891, in spite of the delights of personal friendships, 
in New York, Lane grew increasingly dissatisfied with the 
limitations of newspaper corresponding. He wanted a 
paper of his own, in which he could express without reserve 
the ideals of social and political betterment with which his 
mind was teeming. In this mood, the first acclaim of the 
rapid growth of the pioneer towns of the far Northwest 
reached him. He saw in this his opportunity, and acted 
quickly and decisively. He gathered together his own 
savings, borrowed from his friend, Sidney Mezes, a few 
more thousand dollars and went to Tacoma, Washington, 
to buy the Tacoma Evening News. 

As soon as the transfer was well made, Lane threw himself 
enthusiastically into the politics of the new town, already 



28 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

suffering from boss rule. By his editorials he succeeded in 
stirring up the City Hall, and drove into Alaskan exile the 
Chief of Police — who, by the way, was said to have be- 
come immensely rich in Alaska while Lane's paper was 
running into bankruptcy in Tacoma. But Lane's misad- 
venture was not wholly due to his civic virtue. He had 
"bought in" at just the moment when the instruments were 
tuning up for the prelude to the great panic crash of 1893. 
Tacoma, and the whole Northwest, had been mainly devel- 
oped by casual investments of speculative Eastern capital, 
and this capital, sensitive to change, was being withdrawn 
to meet home needs. Investors, to protect real interests, 
were willing to sacrifice their "little Western flyers," at 
almost any discount. 

As the terminal of the new Northern Pacific Railroad, 
Tacoma — lying on the bluffs overlooking the great inland 
sea of Puget Sound, guardianed by the vastness of its moun- 
tain — was backed by forests whose wealth could scarcely 
be exaggerated, even by promoter's advertisements. She 
was noisily proclaimed to be the "Gateway to the Ori- 
ent," but trade was not yet firmly established with the 
Orient, and, indeed, what was Washington's wealth of un- 
cut timber when the capital to develop it was slowly ebbing 
Eastward ? 

No paper without heavy capitalization, could have sus- 
tained a policy of political reform, when, in the picturesque 
vernacular of the time and place, "the bottom had dropped 
out of the town." A rival newspaper, the Ledger, in order 
to retrench, began a war on the Printers' Union, to break 
wages. Lane repudiated the effort made to "rat" his paper 
and to force the Union out. He sustained his men in their 
fight to keep the Union rate, and lent them his presses to 
carry on their propaganda. In after years he said, "As to 



POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 29 

my labor record, it is a consistent one of thirty years length, 
ever since I stood by the Union in Tacoma, and went 
broke." Again he wrote to an acquaintance, "I often think 
of the old days in Tacoma. We were a fighting bunch, and 
I think most of us are fighting for the same things that we 
fought for then ; a little bit more decency and less graft in 
affairs, and a chance for a man to rise by ability and not by 
pull alone." 

In April, 1893, Lane had married Anne Wintermute — 
he needed all he could find of cheer in those depressing days. 
The whole town was beaten to its knees by loss and fore- 
closure. Lane was struggling to hold together his paper, 
and save his friend's investment and his own little stake. 
The one bright interlude of that time for him lay in reading, 
and in his new friendships. He loved to chant aloud to a 
group of stranded young fellows gathered in his rooms, in 
his gay trumpeting way, brave passages from the Barrack- 
Room Ballads, of Kipling, that were lifting the spirits of the 
English-speaking world with their freshness and daring. 
Stevenson, too, with his polished optimism delighted Lane. 
"I can remember," says one of the group, "just how I 
heard him read aloud the last words from Stevenson's essay, 
Aes Triplex, in those melancholy Tacoma days — 'those 
happy days when we were so miserable ! ' ' : — 

"All who have meant good work with their whole hearts, 
have done good work, although they may die before they 
have the time to sign it. . . . Does not life go down with a 
better grace, foaming in full body over a precipice, than mis- 
erably straggling to an end in sandy deltas? When the 
Greeks made their fine saying that those whom the Gods 
love die young, I cannot help believing they had this sort 
of death also in their eye. For surely, at whatever age it 
overtake the man, this is to die young. Death has not been 



30 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

suffered to take so much as an illusion from his heart. In 
the hot-fit of life, a-tip-toe on the highest point of being, he 
passes at a bound on to the other side. The noise of the 
mallet and chisel is scarcely quenched, the trumpets are 
hardly done blowing, when, trailing with him clouds of 
glory, this happy-starred, full-blooded spirit shoots into 
the spiritual land." 

Still believing in the good work he had meant with his 
whole heart, Lane turned from the bankruptcy of his paper, 
sold at auction, to write to his friend of new adventures. 

To John H. Wigmore 

Tacoma, October 25, 1894 

My dear Wigmore, — I have not heard from you for a 
year. You are in my debt at least one, and I think two, 
letters. I have sent you an occasional paper, just to let 
you know I was alive and I am hazarding this letter to the 
old address. . . . 

My affairs here have not prospered and I am thinking of 
going somewhere else. . . . Do you think Japan has any- 
thing to offer a man such as myself? Would there be any 
chance there for a newspaper run by an American ? Are 
there any wealthy Americans there who would be likely to 
put up a few thousands for such an enterprise? . . . 

Life is not the "giddy, reeling dream of love and fame" 
that it once was, and I have decided on gathering a few 
essential dollars. Now Japan may not be the place I am 
looking for, . . . but unless I am greatly mistaken, a man 
who is up on American affairs and alive to business oppor- 
tunities could do well in Japan. But then this is all a guess, 
and I want you to put me right. . . . Yours very truly, 

Franklin K. Lane 



Ill 

LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 

1894-1906 

Law — Drafting New City Charter — Elected as City and County Attorney — 
Gubernatorial Campaign — Mayoralty Campaign — Earthquake — Ap- 
pointment as Interstate Commerce Commissioner 

Late in the fall of 1894 Lane returned to San Francisco 
and for some months associated himself with Arthur 
McEwen, on Arthur McEwen's Letter, a lively political weekly 
which attacked various forms of civic corruption in San 
Francisco, and made an especial target of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, then in practical control of the State. 

He also formed a law partnership with his brother, George 
W. Lane, under the firm name of Lane and Lane. In 1895 
a curious case, estimated as involving about sixty million 
dollars worth of property, was brought to the young at- 
torneys. The Star, of San Francisco, described the issue 
at stake by saying, "One Jose Noe and four alleged grand- 
children of Jose Noe appear, who pretend that they can show 
a clear title to an undivided one-half interest in nearly forty- 
five hundred acres within the city, on which land reside some 
five thousand or more owners, mostly men of small means." 

Upon investigation Lane and his brother became con- 
vinced that the suit had been instituted as a blackmailing 
scheme, in an attempt to force the owners to pay for quit- 
claim deeds ; they took and energetically fought the case for 
the defendants, without asking for a retainer. Their clients 
formed themselves into what they called the San Miguel 

31 



32 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Defense Association. In a year the title of the householders 
to their little homes was established beyond peradventure. 

With the warmth of Latin gratitude this service was re- 
membered. In 1898 when Lane ran for his first political 
office, as City and County Attorney, the San Miguel Defense 
Association revived its energies, formed a Franklin K. Lane 
Campaign Club and sent out vivid circulars about Franklin 
K. Lane, "who nobly fought for us. . . . It is now our 
turn to stand by him and see that he is elected by a very 
large majority." Their proclamation ended with the ap- 
peal, "Vote for Franklin K. Lane, the Foe to Blackmailers." 

As Lane's plurality in this first election was eight hundred 
and thirty-two votes, there is little doubt that his grateful 
clients played a real part in that success. 

The Tacoma printers had also sent a testimonial, which 
was widely distributed in the campaign, as to Lane's friend- 
ship to labor, saying that they, in gratitude, had made him 
an honorary member of their Typographical Union. The 
campaign was made on the rights of the plain people, for 
its chief issue. 

In the letter that follows, Lane, in 1913, tells of his formal 
entry into politics, in 1898. 



To P. T. Spurgeon 

Herald, McClure Newspaper Syndicate 

Washington, December 30, 1913 
Dear Mr. Spurgeon, — In reply to your inquiry of 
December 29, permit me to say that I got into politics in 
this way : — 

One day, while on my way to lunch, I met Mayor Phelan, 
of San Francisco, who asked me if I would become a member 
of the committee to draft a charter for the city. I said I 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 33 

would, and was appointed. At that time I was practising 
law and had no idea whatever that I would at any time run 
for public office, or take any considerable part in public 
affairs. I helped to draft the charter, and as it had to be 
submitted to the people for ratification, I stumped the city 
for it. Later, when the first election was held under it, 
my friends on the charter committee insisted that I should 
accept the Democratic nomination for City Attorney. 
Under the charter, the City Attorney was the legal adviser 
of all the city and county officials, and it was his business 
to define and construe this organic law, and the friends of 
the charter wished some one who was in sympathy with 
the instrument to give it initial construction. 

I was nominated by the Democratic party by an 
independent movement and was elected ; later re-elected, 
and elected for a third term. After an unsuccessful candi- 
dacy for the governorship, I was appointed a member of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission by President Roose- 
velt. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

San Francisco, November 14, 1898 

My dear Wigmore, — This is a formal note of acknowledg- 
ment of the service rendered me in the campaign, which 
has just closed successfully. There were only three Demo- 
crats elected on the general ticket, the Mayor, Assessor, and 
myself. I ran four thousand five hundred votes ahead 
of my ticket. It was a splendid tribute to worth ! I never 
before realized how discriminating the American public is. 
A man who scoffs at Democratic institutions must be a 
tyrant at heart, or a defeated candidate. I tell you the 
people know a good man when they see one. 



34 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

My opponent was the present Attorney General of the 
State, W. F. Fitzgerald, a very capable man, and probably 
the best man on the Republican ticket. He has been 
steadily in office for thirty years, in Mississippi, Arizona, 
and California, and this is his first defeat; and I sincerely 
regret that I had to take a fall out of such a gentleman. 

Now, the perplexing problem arises as to how long I shall 
hold office. The term is for two years. The new charter 
comes up before the coming Legislature for approval in 
January, and that instrument provides for another election 
next fall, to fill all City and County offices. . . . 

I don't want to stay in politics, two years in the office will 
be long enough for me. I hope that I shall make a credit- 
able record. I can foresee that strong pressure will be 
brought to bear upon me to act with the Examiner in making 
things disagreeable for the corporations, and I will have 
no easy task in gaining the approval of my own party, and 
of my conscience and judgment at the same time. 

Let me thank you again very earnestly for what you did, 
and believe me. Yours sincerely, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The City Charter that Lane had helped to draft, with 
its many new provisions, never before adjudicated, made 
his first term as City and County Attorney one requiring 
an especial amount of laborious legal study. To meet the 
pressing need, Lane organized his corps of assistants to in- 
clude several men of marked legal ability and the industry 
that the task demanded, appointing his brother, George W. 
Lane, as his first assistant. 

It was partly due to the good team-work of the office that 
his opinions rendered in four years were as "numerous as 
those heretofore rendered by the department in about sixteen 




FRANKLIN K. LANE 

AS CITY AND COUNTY ATTORNEY 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 35 

years," and that during one of the years of his incumbency 
"not a dollar of damages was obtained against the city." 

To John H. Wig more 

San Francisco, September 25, [1899] 

My dear Wigmore, — ... As an evidence of what I am do- 
ing I sent you a brief three or four days ago in the Charter 
case. I have another just filed on the question of county 
officers holding over under the Charter, a third on' the new 
primary law which is a grand thing if we can make it stick, 
and a fourth on the taxation of bonds of quasi-public corpora- 
tions, and a fifth on the taxation of National Bank stock. 

I have hardly seen my baby for six weeks; have been 
at the office from nine a.m. to eleven p.m. regularly. And 
now that I am nearly dead a new campaign is on and I must 
run again. And, of course, I have enemies now which I 
hadn't last year. 

Thank you once again for so kindly remembering me. 
Yours sincerely, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Lane's first child, a son, was born in the spring of 1898. 
He is the "Ned" of the letters -- Franklin K. Lane, Jr. 
Lane's attitude toward children is shown in many of 
his letters. His own boy gave a strong impetus to his 
most disinterested social ideals. In writing of the birth 
of a friend's baby he said, "For the child we act nobly, its 
call to us is always to our finer side." 

To John II. Wigmore 

San Francisco, November 10 

My dear Wigmore, — This is to be a mere bulletin. I 
am elected once again — 10,500 majority, the largest re- 



36 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

ceived by any candidate. You expected me to run for 
Mayor I know. Well, it was offered me — the nomination, 
I mean — and all my campaign expenses promised. But 
I couldn't accept, having told the Labor Union people that 
I was a candidate for City Attorney and not for Mayor. 
This Labor Union Party is a new one, the outgrowth of 
the recent strike. They have elected their Mayor, a 
musician named Schmitz, a decent, conservative young 
man, who will surprise the decent moneyed people and anger 
the laboring people with his conservatism. 1 I didn't have 
one single word of praise from a newspaper in the campaign. 
They hardly mentioned the fact that I was a candidate. 
It was jolly good therefore to win as I did. 

And my congratulations to you, my honored friend, Dean 
Wigmore. Next year I am to publish my Opinions, a 
copy of which, of course, will go to you, but not by virtue of 
your office, old man. You are arriving, of course, but there 
is something better in store. A Federal Judgeship is the 
thing for you ; and when I get into the Cabinet you shall 
have it. But don't wait till then. I'm gray and bald now 
and my boy patronizes me. So don't wait, but get your 
lines out, and one of these days you'll make it. Where next 
I shall land I don't know, probably in a law office, praying 
for clients. . . . Always yours, 

F. K. L. 

Lane's first majority in 1898 of 832 votes was increased 
to 10,500 in 1899, when he was re-elected; and two years 
later he won by a still larger majority. A number of his 
opinions, as City Attorney, were collected and bound in a 
volume, as none of them had been reversed by the Supreme 
Court of the State. 

1 Lane lived to smile at his too charitable characterization of this San Francisco 
Mayor. 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 37 

He took much pleasure in a dinner club that he helped 
to form. The members were University professors, lawyers, 
newspaper men, and a few business men. "But," says one 
of them, " in spirit they were poets, philosophers and 
prophets. They were aware that their solutions of problems 
vexing to the brains of other men, would be Utopian, but 
as they were not willing to be classed with ordinary Uto- 
pians they named their club Amaurot, after the capital of 
Utopia, thus signifying that while they dwelt in Utopia, 
they were not subject to it but were lords of it — the 
teachers of its wisdom and the makers of its laws." 

His home life absorbed much of his leisure. He and his 
family had moved into a modest house on Gough Street, 
in San Francisco, with a view of the bay, Alcatraz Island, 
and the Marin Hills from the upstairs living-room 
window — for no house was a home to Lane that had no 
view — and in the back-yard, among its red geraniums 
and cosmos bushes, he played Treasure Island and Wild 
West with his boy. 

In the summer of 1902, Lane was nominated as the Demo- 
cratic and Non-Partisan candidate for Governor of Cali- 
fornia. At the Democratic Convention at Sacramento, 
an onlooker described the excitement among the delegates 
before a selection was made, "Throughout the night until 
late afternoon of the second day, without any clear solution 
of the problem, came the roll-call of the counties, then a 
wild stampede for the young City and County Attorney 
of San Francisco, who was borne to the platform. . . . 

"It was Franklin K. Lane who stood a goodly and con- 
fident figure, waving a palm-leaf fan for quiet. He said : — 

" 'I was in the rear of the hall when Governor Budd made 
his speech and voiced the call of the party for a winner, and, 
in response to his call, I have taken this platform.' " 



38 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

This note of joyous truculence, with the little out-thrust 
of the underlip, brought, as so often before and since, 
laughter and applause. 

A hot and spirited campaign followed. California is 
naturally Republican, and Lane had many times challenged 
and attacked the great powers of the State. He made 
as his chief issues, Irrigation, Prison Reform, and a fairer 
share in the world's goods for all the people. He traveled 
far and fast, often speaking six times in a day, at different 
places, and sometimes riding a hundred and fifty miles in 
twenty-four hours, over the rough roads of remote counties. 

While campaigning he outlined his notion of public service 
in this way, "No man should have a political office because 
he wants a job. A public office is not a job, it is an oppor- 
tunity to do something for the public. Once in office it 
remains for him to prove that the opportunity was not 
wasted. . . ." And again he said, — "There is nothing 
that touches me so, in the little that I have seen in political 
life, as this, that while it is a game in which men can be 
mean, contemptible and dastardly, it is a game also that 
brings out the finer, better, and nobler qualities. I know 
why some men are in politics to their own financial loss. 
Because they find it is a great big man's game, which calls 
for men to fight it, and they want to stand beside their fel- 
lows and do battle." 

In regretting that he could not attend a Democratic 
meeting, at Richmond, California, he sent this letter, — 



To Lyman Naugle 

My dear Mr. Naugle, — . . . The cause of Democracy is 
being given more sincere and thoughtful interest this campaign 
than for many years. One of its cardinal principles is that 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 39 

the individual is more important to the State than mere 
property, and that the welfare of the majority of our citizens 
must always be paramount and their rights prevail, no mat- 
ter what the weight of influence in the other side of the bal- 
ance. It is work and personal worth which make a State 
great both politically and industrially, and in my estimation 
they are to be found in largest proportions in the Demo- 
cratic party. For these reasons I believe there will be a 
very large change in the vote of this State in our coming 
election. Reports have reached me from many parts of 
the State, and I am entirely satisfied that we shall win 
this fight provided that we do our full share of earnest work, 
if that be lacking we don't deserve it. . . . Yours for hon- 
est victory, 

Franklin K. Lane 

At first Hearst's powerful paper, the San Francisco 
Examiner, took a negative tone toward Lane's candidacy 
but soon became dangerously, if covertly, antagonistic. 
Of Hearst's methods of attack Lane wrote, in detail, on 
July 3, 1912, to Governor Woodrow Wilson, then Demo- 
cratic nominee for the Presidency. After enumerating one 
specific count after another against the Examiner Lane 
said : — 

"When a boy putting myself through college I was busi- 
ness manager of a temperance paper which advocated pro- 
hibition. He [Hearst] published extracts from this paper 
and credited them to me, and on the morning of election 
day sent a special train throughout the whole of Northern 
California containing an issue of his paper, appealing to the 
saloon-keepers and wine-growers for my defeat. 

"... No editorial word of his disfavor appeared, but 
in every news article there was in the headline a cunning 



40 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

turn or twist, calculated to arouse prejudice against me. I 
notice in this morning's issue of the American the same 
policy is being pursued regarding you. 

"Now the great mistake I made was in not boldly telling 
the public just what I knew. ... I felt that it was a personal 
matter with which the public was not concerned, but I know 
now, as I have gotten older and seen more of politics, that 
it was a public matter of the first importance, as to which 
the public should have had knowledge. 

"Later when he [Hearst] budded as a candidate for Pres- 
ident, in 1904, he sought an interview with me and said 
that he was not to blame for the policy that had been 
pursued. Our interview closed with this dialogue: — 

"' Mr. Lane, if you ever wish anything that I can do, all 
you will have to do will be to send me a telegram asking, 
and it will be done.' 

"To which I responded, 'Mr. Hearst, if you ever get a 
telegram from me asking you to do anything, you can put 
that telegram down as a forgery."' 

In a State like California, one of whose chief industries was 
the growing of wine-grapes, and where the Examiner was 
the farmer's paper, at least one phase of the attack upon 
Lane bore heavy fruit. Upon election day the count be- 
tween Lane and Dr. George Pardee, the Republican can- 
didate, was found to be close. In the end several thousand 
votes, unmistakably intended for Lane, were thrown out 
upon technicalities. Lane was defeated, and Dr. Pardee 
took office. It was a bitter blow. 

The night when the final bad news was brought to Lane 
in his home, he called his son, of four, to him, leaning down 
he put his arm around the boy very gravely and tenderly, 
and said, "Ned, it isn't my little son, it is Dr. Pardee's little 
boy that is going to have that white pony." 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 41 

The boy caught the emotion in his father's voice, and said 
cheerily, "O, that's all right, Dad. That's all right." 

Lane found that in spite of the loss of the Governorship 
his circle of personal contacts had been greatly widened by 
his campaign. He had come to know, and be known by, 
the men most prominent in California public affairs and he 
had made, and confirmed, many friendships with men who 
had given themselves whole-heartedly to his advancement. 
Of these friendships he wrote, in 1920, to his friend Timothy 
Spellacy, "Eighteen years I have known you and never a word 
or act have I heard of, or seen, that did not make me feel 
that the campaign for Governor was worth while because it 
gave me your acquaintance, friendship, affection. . . . When 
I get mad, as I do sometimes, over something that the Irish do, 
I always am tempted to a hard generalization that I am com- 
pelled to modify because of you and Mike and Dan O'Neill, 
in San Francisco — and a few more of the Great Irish." 

Lane's second child, Nancy, was born January 4, 1903. 

Early in that year Lane was given the complimentary 
vote of his party in the California Legislature for United 
States Senator. 

He was chosen in April to go to Washington to argue 
the case of the need of the City of San Francisco for a pure 
water supply from the Hetch-Hetchy Valley, an unused 
part of the Yosemite Park. 

A curious opposition to this measure had been worked up 
in the East by a small group of well-intentioned nature lovers 
who did not, perhaps, realize that this was one of many 
thousand valleys in the Sierras, and one not, in any sense, 
unique in its beauty. The plan proposed to convert a re- 
mote, mosquito-haunted marsh, dreaded even by hunters 



42 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

because of the "bad-going," into a large lake-reservoir to 
feed the city of San Francisco. This was the first of Lane's 
fights to assure to man the use of neglected resources, and 
at the same time, by great care, to protect natural beauty 
for his delight. 

While in Washington on this errand, he met President 
Roosevelt several times. Their informal talks served to 
increase Lane's strong liking for the vigorous man of action, 
then at the height of his powers. 

To his friend he writes of all this. 



To John H. Wigmore 

San Francisco, May 9, 1903 

My dear Wigmore, — My trip East was a great success. 
After leaving you I stayed three or four days in Washington, 
where I found the Department of the Interior pretty well 
stacked against me ; I, however, succeeded in having a day 
fixed upon which an argument would be listened to, and 
after this victory went to New York, where I met many old 
friends and made some new ones. . . . 

Upon my return to Washington I had several days of 
argument before the Department, saw the President [Roose- 
velt] twice and lunched with him, and then went South ; 
was invited by the Legislature of Texas to speak before 
them, which I did with much satisfaction, especially as there 
were but two Republicans in both houses. 

I stopped with my old friend Mezes, in Austin, who is 
the dean of the University, . . . and easily the most influ- 
ential man socially, politically, and educationally in the insti- 
tution. . . . 

I am having an extremely disagreeable time. The Demo- 
crats here insist upon my running for Mayor, urging it as 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 43 

a duty which I owe to the party, because they say I am the 
only man who can be elected ; and as a duty to the city, 
because they say that the scoundrels who are now in office 
will continue, and worse ones come in, unless we can elect 
some clean Democrat. I urge everything against the thing, 
that comes to my mind, including my poverty, the fact that 
I made four campaigns in five years, my personal aversion 
to the office of Mayor, the inability of any one to please the 
people of San Francisco as Mayor, the conspiracy of the 
newspapers that exists against a government that is not 
controlled by them, and the fact that to insist upon my taking 
this office would be an act of political murder on the part of 
my friends. . . . Yours as always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Heavy and continued pressure, through the spring and 
summer, was brought, by his party, to bear upon Lane to 
accept the nomination for Mayor of San Francisco. His 
letters show his reluctance and distress. The appeal was 
made personal, with reminders of sacrifices made for him. 
He at last agreed to run. His judgment of the situation 
was fully confirmed in the final event. His defeat was un- 
equivocal. San Francisco had no idea of accepting a 
Democratic mayor with a leaning toward reform. Lane 
analysed the political situation in this letter : — 



To John II. Wigmore 

San Francisco, January 20, 1904 

My dear Wigmore, — What the effect of my defeat for 
Mayor will be, it is of course impossible to say. Its immedi- 
ate effect has been to throw me into the active practice of 
law, and thus far I have not starved. It will, of course, not 



44 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

lead to my retirement from politics, but it will postpone 
no doubt, the realization of some ambitions. I think I 
wrote you just what my state of mind was previous to the 
nomination. I did not wish to make the fight, did every- 
thing that was in my power to avoid the nomination, and 
even went so far as to hold up the convention in a formal 
letter which I addressed to it, telling them that I did not 
wish to be Mayor of San Francisco and begging them to get 
some one else. 

The fight was along class lines entirely; the employers 
on one side and the wage earners on the other. The 
Republican nominee represented the employers, the 
Union Labor nominee, the wage earners. I stood for good 
government, and in the battle my voice could hardly be 
heard. It was a splendid old fight in which every interest 
that was vicious, violent, or corrupt was solidly against me. 
And while I did not win the election, I lost nothing in prestige 
by the defeat, save among politicians who are always look- 
ing for availability. It was not, in the nature of things, 
up to me to run for Mayor, but my people all believed 
that I was assured of election and felt that I was the only 
man who could possibly be elected. I acted out of a sense 
of loyalty to my party and a desire to do something to rid 
the city of its present cursed administration. However, it 
may in the end be a very fortunate thing, for I know no 
career more worthless than that of a perpetual office-seeker. 

I received a letter from a friend in New York yesterday 
telling me that Senator Hill ' had told him that the New 
York delegation would cast its vote for me for Vice-President 
at the Democratic National Convention, and that he regarded 
me as the most available man to nominate ; but, of course, 
I sent back word that that was not to be considered. 

1 In campaigning New York for Cleveland, Lane had met David B. Hill. 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 45 

I should judge from the Examiner here, that Hearst was 
making a very strong fight for a delegation from Illinois. 
His boom seems to me to be increasing. That it is possible 
for such a man to receive the nomination, is too humiliating 
to be thought of. . . . Very sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The day after his defeat Lane had written to thank a 
generous friend : — 

To William R. Wheeler 

San Francisco, Wednesday [November, 1903] 
My dear Will, — I can't go to the country without saying 
to you once more that your self-sacrifice and manliness 
throughout this campaign have endeared you to me to a de- 
gree that words cannot convey. 

I had hoped the last day or two that I would be able to 
make your critics ashamed to look you in the face, and that 
they would in time come pleading to you for recognition. 
But now you must be content with knowing that you did a 
man's part, and set a standard in friendship and loyalty 
which my boy shall be taught to strive for. 

I earnestly hope that your business relations will not be 
disturbed by this trouble into which I got you. Had I 
been out of it Crocker couldn't have won. My vote would 
largely have gone for Schmitz. 

Give my love to Mrs. Wheeler and believe me, always 

your friend, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Wheeler, himself a Republican, belonged, at the time, to 
a firm of irreconcilable Republicans, who had expressed 
sharp disapproval of his activity in Lane's behalf. 



46 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Out of office and back to the practise of the law, Lane 
soon built his private practise on a firmer basis than before. 
His close identification with the Democratic Party was not 
impaired, but the frequent demands for attendance at 
public conventions and meetings he could not leave his 
practise to accept. In declining one of these invitations 
he replied : — 



To Orva G. Williams 
Iroquois Club, Chicago, Illinois 

San Francisco, April 7, 1904 

. . . Permit me to say that we of the West look to you 
who are closer to the center of things for leadership. . . . 
This means only that we must be true to the principles that 
make us Democrats. . . . The law must not be severe or 
lenient with any man simply because he is rich nor because 
he is poor. It must not become the tool of class antagonism 
for either the persecution of the well-to-do or for the repres- 
sion of the masses of the people. 

. . . We must resist the base opportunism which would 
abandon our strong position of devotion to these fun- 
damental principles of good government for the sake of 
gaining temporary strength from some passing passion 
of the hour. To identify our party with an idea which 
springs from class distrust or class hatred is to gain tem- 
porary stimulation at the expense of permanent weakness. 
If we are to heed the voice which bids us cease to be Dem- 
ocrats in order that we may win, we shall find that we have 
lost not only the victory of being true, but also the vic- 
tory at the polls, which can be ours only in case we are true. 
. . . Our creed is simple and clear, but it cannot be re- 
cited by those who would make our organization an annex 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 47 

to the Republican party by catering to that conservatism 
which seeks only to bring greater benefit to the already 
wealthy, nor by those who would make it an annex 
to the Socialist party by joining in every attack, no matter 
how unjust, upon the wealthy. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To the Iroquois Club of Los Angeles on the same day he 
wrote, — "It becomes us to consider well the meaning of 
the signs of the times. Miracles may not be worked with 
these waves of prosperity. It is in no man's power to say 
'Peace, be still,' and quiet the troubled sea of panic. But 
we may make sure that men of steady nerve, of clear head 
and highest purpose are at the helm. I expect to see the 
time when the Democratic party will, by fixed adherence 
to a well-defined course, gain and hold the approval and sup- 
port of the majority of our people, not for a single election 
but for a long series of elections, and if we begin now with 
this end in view we certainly will be prepared for whatever 
may happen — victory or defeat ; and in both alike we will 
be proud of our party and give a guarantee for the future." 

While campaigning California for Governor, in 1902, 
Isadore B. Dockweiler ran on Lane's ticket, for the office of 
Lieutenant Governor, and Dockweiler still looked to him 
for counsel. 



To Isadore B. Dockweiler 

San Francisco, April 16, 1904 

My dear Dockweiler, — You ask in your favor of the 
14th whether California will send a delegation to St. Louis 
pledged to Mr. Hearst and if this program has been agreed 
upon, as is the report in Los Angeles, 



48 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I cannot tell what the Democrats of California will do, 
but I know what they should do. A delegation should go 
from this state that is free, unowned, unpledged, made up 
of men whose prime interest is that of their party and whom 
the party does not need to bind with pledges. To pledge 
the delegation is to make the delegates mere pawns, pup- 
pets, counters, coins to trade with, — so much political 
wampum. 

The object in holding a national convention is not to 
please the vanity nor gratify the ambition of any individual, 
but to select a national standard bearer who will proudly 
lead the party in the campaign and be a credit to the party 
and an honor to the nation, if elected. Surely the De- 
mocracy of California can select candidates who can be de- 
pended upon to be guided by these considerations. To tie 
the delegates hand and foot, toss them into a bag, and sling 
them over the shoulder of one man to barter as he may 
please, is not consistent with my notion of the dignity of 
their position, nor does it appeal to me as the most certain 
manner of making them effective in enlarging and empha- 
sizing the power of the state. . . . 

As to your suggestion of a program to deliver this state 
to one candidate — if there is such a program — I am not 
a party to it, never have been, and never will be. . . . The 
Democrats of California . . . will do much for the sake of 
harmony so long as party welfare and public good are not 
sacrificed ; but they must be permitted to make their own 
program irrespective of the personal alliances, affiliations, 
or ambitions of politicians. 

Personally, I am not in active political life. My views 
upon party questions I do not attempt to impose upon my 
party, yet I know of no reason why I should hesitate to give 
them expression. I cannot but believe that if many a man 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 49 

were more indifferent to his future, he would be more certain 
to have a future. 

There is one reason which to my mind should forbid my 
active direction of any organized movement against Mr. 
Hearst, namely the attitude of his paper during my recent 
campaign for the governorship. I do not wish it to be said 
or thought that I am seeking to use our party for purposes 
of personal retaliation. Whatever reasons for bitterness I 
may have because of that campaign I am persuaded it does 
not affect my judgment that it is the part of wisdom to send 
an unpledged delegation to the national convention. 

The Democrats of California should determine with calm- 
ness and without passion what course will be most likely 
to prove a matter of pride to themselves, their state, and 
the nation, and in that sober judgment act fearlessly. 
Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The Pacific Coast, in 1004, still suffered from transporta- 
tion problems of great complexity. The railroads, whose 
terminals were here, were few and extraordinarily powerful 
and had, heretofore, controlled rail traffic, to a large extent, 
in their own interest. They wanted no regulation or inter- 
ference from the Interstate Commerce Commission and no 
Pacific Coast representative on that Commission. The 
fruit, wheat, and lumber producers of the Western Coast, on 
the other hand, felt the need of a strong representative to 
protect their interests against the railroads, and to stabilize 
freight rates. Lane's record for independence of sinister 
control, his legal training and energy made him the natural 
choice of the shippers for this position. 

Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of 
California, was a friend of Lane's and also a friend of Presi- 



50 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

dent Roosevelt's. While in the East, in the spring of 1904, 
Wheeler had a talk with Roosevelt, about Lane's qualifica- 
tions for the Interstate Commerce appointment. He told 
Roosevelt why the producers in California needed a man 
that they could trust to be fair to their interests on the 
Commission. Roosevelt heartily concurred, and promised 
to name Lane for the next vacancy. 

When the vacancy occurred, however, just after an over- 
whelming Republican victory, Roosevelt impulsively gave 
the appointment to an old friend — Senator Cockrill of 
Missouri, a Democrat. Wheeler at once telegraphed the 
President reminding him of the oversight, and to this Roose- 
velt telegraphed this reply : — 

"Am exceedingly sorry, had totally forgotten my promise 
about Lane and have nothing to say excepting that I had 
totally forgotten it when Senator Cockrill was offered the 
position. I can only say now that I shall put him in some 
good position suitable to his great talents and experience 
when the chance occurs. Of course when I made the prom- 
ise about Lane the idea of getting Cockrill for the position 
could not be in any one's head. This does not excuse me 
for breaking the promise, which I should never have done, 
and of course, if I had remembered it I should not have 
offered the position to Cockrill. I am very sorry. But as 
fortunately I have another term, I shall make ample amends 
to Lane later." 

In September, 1905, while matters were in this position, 
Lane went to Mexico, as legal adviser for a western rubber 
company. In October, Roosevelt announced his intention 
to place Lane on the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
to fill the annual vacancy that occurred in December. The 
announcement caused much newspaper comment, especially 
in the more partisan Republican press, as the coming va- 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 51 

cancy would leave two Republicans and two Democrats on 
the Commission. 

When Lane reached the United States he wrote : — 



To Edward B. Whitney 

San Francisco, November 13, 1905 

My dear Whitney, — I have just returned from a two 
months' trip through Mexico, from the Rio Grande to Gua- 
temala, and from the Gulf to the Pacific, and know nothing 
whatever concerning the Interstate Commerce Commission- 
ership, save what I have seen in the papers since my return. 

... I have not put myself in the position of soliciting, 
either directly or indirectly, this appointment ; I have never 
even stimulated to a slight degree the activity ... of my 
friends on my behalf. There is some misgiving in my own 
mind as to whether acceptance of the position would be of 
benefit to me either politically, or otherwise. I have no 
doubt the nomination for Governor can be mine next year 
without effort, and what the outcome of an election would 
be in 1906, even in a Republican State, is not now to be 
prophesied, in view of the somersaults in Ohio and Penn- 
sylvania of a week ago. Of course, . . . it is a great oppor- 
tunity to prove or disprove the capacity of this government 
to control effectively the corporations which seem deter- 
mined to be its master. 

It does look to me as if the problem of our generation is 
to be the discovery of some effective method by which the 
artificial persons whom we have created by law can be 
taught that they are not the creators, the owners, and the 
rightful managers of the government. The real greatness 
of the President's policy, to my notion, is that he has de- 
termined to prove to the railroads that they have not the 



52 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

whole works, and the policy that they have followed is as 
short-sighted as it can be. It will lead, if pursued as it has 
been begun, to the wildest kind of a craze for government 
ownership of everything. Just as you people in New York 
City were forced, by the delinquency and corruption of the 
gas combine, to undertake the organization of a municipal 
ownership movement, so it may be that the same qualities 
in the railroads will create precisely the same spirit through- 
out the country. 

I appreciate thoroughly your position in New York. . . . 
[Hearst] knows public sentiment and how to develop it very 
well, and will be a danger in the United States, I am afraid, 
for many years to come. He has great capacity for dis- 
organization of any movement that is not his own, and an 
equal capacity for organization of any movement that is his 
personal property. He feels with the people, but he has no 
conscience. . . . He is willing to do whatever for the minute 
the people may want done and give them what they cry 
for, unrestrained by sense of justice, or of ultimate effect. 
He is the great American Pander. 

Reverting again to the Interstate Commerce Commission- 
ership, I think the railroads here are determined that no 
Pacific Coast man shall be appointed. That has been the 
policy of the Southern Pacific since the creation of the Com- 
mission. . . . 

One of the amusing reports that has come to me is that 
the railroad feels friendly toward me. I think probably 
the extent of their friendliness is in acknowledging that I 
am not a blackmailer. They know that I would not hold 
them up, just as well as they know that I could not be held 
up. In the various campaigns that I have made, it has 
never been suggested that the railroads had any more in- 
fluence with me than they ought to have, or that anybody 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 53 

else had, and in my fight for the Governorship they did not 
contribute so much as a single postcard, nor did an indi- 
vidual railroad man contribute a dollar to the campaign fund. 
I say this because I heard yesterday that word had gone to 
the President that I was something of a railroad man, which 
is about the most amusing thing that I have heard for some- 
time. The charge never was made in any of my five cam- 
paigns, and certainly is made only for foreign consumption, 
and not for home consumption. 

Do not in any way put yourself out regarding this matter. 
I am satisfied that the President will do just what he wants 
to do and just what he thinks right, without much respect 
to what anybody says to him, and I don't want to bring 
pressure to bear upon him ; but, of course, I want him to 
know that I have friends who think well of me. I am very 
appreciative of your offer and efforts, and hope that, whether 
I am given this position or not, I shall before very long have 
the opportunity of seeing you in New York. Very sincerely, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hon. Theodore Roosevelt 
The White House 

San Francisco, December 9, [1905] 

My dear Mr. President, — I have not written you before 
because of my expectation that I would see you soon, but 
as there now seems some doubt as to immediate confirma- 
tion I will not longer delay expressing the deep gratification 
which the nomination gave me. You gave the one answer 
I could have wished to the whispered charge that I was 
bound by obligation of some sort to the railroads — a charge 
never made in any form here, not even in the hottest of my 
five campaigns. My honor stood pledged to you — by the 
very fact of my willingness to accept the post — that I was 



54 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

free, independent, self -owned, capable of unbiased action. 
And that pledge remains. 

As to my confirmation, it has been suggested that it was 
the customary and expected thing for me to go to Washing- 
ton and help in the fight. This I feel I should not do and 
have so written to Senator Perkins and others. I do not 
wish to appear indifferent in the slightest degree to the honor 
you have done me, or to the office itself, but I feel that you 
will appreciate without my setting them forth on paper the 
many reasons which hold me here. This is no time for an 
Interstate Commerce Commissioner to be on his knees be- 
fore a United States Senator or to be thought to be in that 
position. Very respectfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
President, University of California 

San Francisco, December 15, 1905 

My dear Mr. Wheeler, — I enclose copy of a letter sent 
this morning to Mr. Smythe of San Diego, who is tempora- 
rily with Senator Newlands in Washington. 

I wanted to tell you last night that I had written to the 
President thanking him for the confidence he had shown in 
me, and telling him that I did not think it was the right 
thing for me to go to Washington under present circum- 
stances. He may have a different notion in this respect, 
and of course I should be guided by his judgment. ... I 
have no doubt that many of the Senators would be quite 
willing to let the President have the law if they could have 
the Commission. . . . 

Personally I should be most pleased to meet these critical 
gentlemen of the Senate and give them a very full account 
of my eventful career. But the fact that I am a Democrat 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 55 

could not be disproved by my presence in Washington, and 
I am not likely to apologize for what one of my kindly Repub- 
lican critics calls "this error of his boyhood." I am con- 
cerned in this matter because I do not wish to cause the 
President any embarrassment. He is fighting for far larger 
things than this appointment represents. He knows his 
own game, and I am quite willing to stand on a side line 
and see him play it to a finish, or get in and buck the center 
if I am needed. 

I must apologize for troubling you with this matter, but 
I do not wish you to regard me as indifferent or unappre- 
ciative. And if you think that I am too far up in the clouds 
I want you frankly to tell me so. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William E. Smythe 

San Francisco, December 15, 1905 

My dear Mr. Smythe, — I have been out of town for a 
few days, else I would have acknowledged your kind letter 
of congratulation sooner. I sent a note the other day 
to our friend Senator Newlands in recognition of the effort 
he has been making to secure action upon my appoint- 
ment, and I certainly regard myself as very fortunate in 
having one who knows me upon that Committee. 1 

According to the press despatches here I am regarded as 
something of a monster by the more conservative Senators, 
a sort of cross between Dennis Kearney and Eugene Debs 
with a little of Herr Most thrown in. . . . I wish for con- 
firmation, but not at the price of having it thought that I in 
any way compromised myself to obtain the Senate's favor- 
able action. I know that you are not alone in this view as 
to the wisdom of my going on, for I have received other 

x The Interstate Commerce Committee. 



56 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

messages to the same effect. But, as you know, the Presi- 
dent made this appointment upon grounds quite superior 
to those of political expediency and upon recommenda- 
tions not at all political in their nature. . . . Very truly 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

San Francisco, December 21, [1905] 

My dear Wigmore, — Your letter bore good fruit. . . . 
As for confirmation it is not as likely as I could wish. How- 
ever, I am enjoying the situation hugely, and if the fight is 
kept up I may enlarge into a national issue. 

The Press of California (notice the respectful capital) is 
practically a unit for me. . . . My information is that the 
President will stand pat. But the fight with the Senate is 
growing so large that no one can tell what will happen. I 
have been urged to go to Washington and meet the Sena- 
tors, but I have refused. . . . Am I not right ? 

Remember me very kindly to your wife, and to you both 
a Merry Christmas. As always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
President, University of California 

San Francisco, December 22, [1905] 

My dear Mr. Wheeler, — It was mighty good of you to 
bring me that message of good cheer last night. I have not 
told you, and cannot now tell you the very great pleasure 
and gratification you have given me by the many evidences 
of your personal friendship. To me it is better to have that 
kind of friendship than any office. 

I have just received a letter from the President [Roose- 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 57 

velt] that is so fine I want you to know of it at once — but 
the original I keep for home use. Here it is : — 

"... I thank you for your frank and manly letter. 
It is just the kind of a letter I should have expected from 
you. You are absolutely right in refraining from coming 
here. I shall make and am making as stiff a fight as I know 
how for you. I think I shall carry you through ; but of 
course nothing of this kind is ever certain. . . ." 

Please remember me most kindly to Mrs. Wheeler and 
believe me always, faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The California earthquake, of April 18, 1906, occurred at 
about five o'clock in the morning. Lane was living in 
North Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco. His 
house built of light wood and shingles, rocked, and his 
chimneys flung down bricks, in the successive shocks, but 
with no serious damage. Meanwhile San Francisco sprang 
into flames from hundreds of broken gas mains. Lane 
reached the city early in the morning, and was at once 
put, by the Mayor, upon the Committee of Fifty to look to 
the safety of the City. 

Will Irwin wrote this picturesque story of the episode 
after having heard his friend describe this adventure : — 

"Lane has said since that, although he was brought up in 
the old West, his was a city life after all. He had never 
tested himself against primitive physical force, tried him- 
self out in an emergency, and he had always longed for such 
a test before he died. When the test came it was a supreme 
one : the San Francisco disaster. . . . 

"On the last day but one of this visitation the fire, smol- 



58 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

dering slowly in the redwood houses, had taken virtually 
all the district east of Van Ness Avenue, a broad street 
which bisects the residence quarter. . . . By this time the 
authorities had given up dynamiting. Chief Sullivan, the 
one man among them who understood the use of explosives 
in fire fighting, was dead. The work had been done by 
soldiers from the Presidio, who blew up buildings too close 
to the flames and so only scattered them. Lane stood on 
the slope of Russian Hill, watching the fire approach Van 
Ness Avenue, when a contractor named Anderson came 
along. 'That fire always catches at the eaves, not the 
foundations,' said Lane. 'It could be stopped right here 
if some one would dynamite all the block beyond Van Ness 
Avenue. It could never jump across a strip so broad.' 
' But they've forbidden any more dynamiting,' said Ander- 
son. 'Never mind ; I'd take the chance myself if we could 
get any explosive,' replied Lane. ' Well, there's a launch 
full of dynamite from Contra Costa County lying right 
now at Meigs's Wharf,' said Anderson. Just then Mr. and 
Mrs. Tom Magee arrived, driving an automobile on the 
wheel rims. Lane despatched them to Meigs's Wharf for 
the dynamite. He and Anderson found an electric bat- 
tery, and cut some dangling wires from a telephone pole. 
By this time the Magees were back, the machine loaded 
with dynamite ; Mrs. Magee carrying a box of detonators 
on her lap. Lane, Anderson, and a corps of volunteers laid 
the battery and strung the wires. 'How do you want this 
house to fall ?' asked Anderson, who understands explosives. 
'Send her straight up,' replied Lane. 

" 'And I've never forgotten the picture which followed,' 
Lane has told me since. 'Anderson disappeared inside, 
came out, and said : "All ready." I joined the two ends of 
wire which I held in my hands. The house rose twenty feet 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 59 

in the air — intact, mind you ! It looked like a scene in a 
fairy book. At that point I rolled over on my back, and 
when I got up the house was nothing but dust and splinters.' 
"They went down the line, blowing up houses, schools, 
churches. Then came bad news. To the south sparks were 
catching on the eaves of the houses. Down there was a 
little water in cisterns. Volunteers under Lane's direction 
made the householders stretch wet blankets over the roofs 
and eaves. Then again bad news from the north. There 
the fire had really crossed the avenue. It threatened the 
Western Addition, the best residence district. The cause 
seemed lost. Lane ran up and looked over the situation. 
Only a few houses were afire, and the slow-burning redwood 
was smoldering but feebly. 'Just a little water would stop 
this ! ' he thought. The whole water system of San Fran- 
cisco was gone, or supposedly so, through the breaking of 
the mains. 'But I had a hunch, just a hunch,' said Lane, 
'that there was water somewhere in the pipes.' He had 
learned that a fire company which had given up the fight 
was asleep on a haystack somewhere in the Western Addi- 
tion. He went out and found them. They had been work- 
ing for thirty-six hours ; they lay like dead men. Lane 
kicked the soles of the nearest fireman. He returned only a 
grunt. The next fireman, however, woke up ; Lane man- 
aged to get him enthusiastic. He found a wrench, and to- 
gether he and Lane went from hydrant to hydrant, turning 
on the cocks. The first five or six gave only a faint spurt 
and ceased to flow. Then, and just when the fireman was 
getting ready to go on strike, they turned a cock no more 
promising than the others, and out spurted a full head of 
water. No one knows to this day where that water came 
from, but it was there ! They shut off the stream. 'It will 
take three engines to pump it to that blaze,' said the fireman. 



60 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

He, Lane, and Anderson scattered in opposite directions 
looking for engines. When twenty minutes later, Lane 
returned with an engine and company two others had already 
arrived. But they had not yet coupled the hose up. The 
companies were quarreling as to which, under the rules of the 
department, should have the position of honor close to the hy- 
drant ! Lane settled that question of etiquette with speed 
and force. They got a stream on the incipient fire, and the 
water held out. The other side of Van Ness Avenue gradually 
burned out and settled down into red coals. The Western 
Addition was saved, and the San Francisco disaster was over." 
A few days later Lane started to Washington in an at- 
tempt to raise money for the rebuilding of San Francisco. 
When he found that Congress would not act in this matter, 
he, with Senator Newlands, of Nevada, and some others, 
went to the President and the Secretary of the Treasury to 
see if Federal help could be secured for the ruined city. 



To William R. Wheeler 

New York, June 23, [190C] 

My dear Will, — I have just returned from Washington, 
where I hope we have accomplished some good for San 
Francisco, although it was mighty hard to move anyone 
except the President and the Secretary of the Treasury. 
But I did not intend to write of anything but your personal 
affairs. Yesterday, on the train, I discovered that you had 
met with another fire. This is rubbing it in, hitting a man 
when he is down. The Gods don't fight fair. The decent 
rules of the Marquis of Queensberry seem to have no recog- 
nition on Olympus, or wherever the Gods live. I can 
quite appreciate the strain you are under and the monu- 
mental difficulties of your situation, dealing as you are with 



LAW PRACTICE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 61 

disspirited old men and indifferent young ones. I hope 
this last blow will have some benefit which I cannot now 
perceive, else it must come like almost a knock-out to the 
concern. Brave, strong, bully old boy, no one knows better 
than I do what a fight you have been making these last few 
years and how many unkindnesses fortune has done you. 
There is not much use either in preaching to one's self or to 
another, the advantages of adversity. I don't believe that 
men are made by fighting relentless Fate, the stuff they 
have is sometimes proved by struggle, — that is the best 
that can be said for such philosophy. 

More power to you my dear fellow ! I took occasion to 
give M . . . a warm dose of Bill Wheeler. He is an old 
sour-ball who thinks he is alive but evidently has been in 
the cemetery a long time. He talked all right about you, 
but all wrong about San Francisco. . . . 

Give my regards to the dear wife whose heart is stout 
enough to meet any calamity, and remember me most 
warmly to the Boy. Sincerely and affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The Hepburn Bill provided for seven men on the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission, instead of five. Roosevelt 
intimated that he would appoint two Republicans. All 
opposition to Lane was then withdrawn. 



To John H. Wigmore 

New York, June 27, [1906] 

My dear Wigmore, — Thanks, and again thanks, for your 
letter to Senator Cullom and yours to me. It looks now 
as if with a seven man Commission the objection to my 
Democracy would cease. Senator Cullom's letter is very 



62 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

reassuring, and I wish that I had met him when in Wash- 
ington. . . . 

Before another week this business of mine will have come 
to a head, and I hope soon after to start West, via Chicago. 

If the report to-day is true that Harlan of Chicago is to go 
on the Commission, you will have two friends on the body. 
I personally think most highly of Harlan and would be 
mighty proud to sit beside him. His political fortune seems 
to have been akin to mine, and we have one dear and cher- 
ished enemy in common. 

Remember me most kindly to your wife and believe me, 

faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Telegram. To John H. Wigmore 

New York, June 30, [1906] 

Confirmation has to-day arrived thanks to a friend or two 

like Wigmore. 

Lane 

To William R. Wheeler 

Washington, July 2, [1906] 

My dear Bill, — I have waited until this minute to write 
you, that I might send you the first greeting from the new 
office. I have just been sworn in and signed the oath, and 
to you I turn first to express gratitude, appreciation, and 
affection. 

My hope is to leave here tomorrow and go to Chicago at 
once on your affair, and then West. 

Remember me most affectionately to your wife, and be- 
lieve me always most faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

At the same time an affectionate letter of appreciation 
went to Benjamin Ide Wheeler, 



IV 
RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 

1906-1912 

Increased voivers of Interstate Commerce Commission — Harriman 
Inquiry — Railroad Regulation — Letters to Roosevelt 

During the late summer of 1906, Lane was in Washington or 
traveling through the South and West to attend the hear- 
ings of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Hep- 
burn Act of 1906, among other extensions of power to the 
Commission, brought the express companies of the United 
States under its jurisdiction, and the Commission began 
the close investigation into the rates, rules, and practises, 
that finally resulted in a complete reorganization and zoning 
of the companies. The new powers given the Commission, 
by this Act, inspired fresh hope of righting old abuses, as- 
sociated with railroad finance, over-capitalization and 
stock-jobbing. The Commission set itself to finding a way 
out of the ancient quarrel between shippers and railroads 
in the matters of rebating and demurrage charges. 

In the latter part of the year, President Roosevelt called 
an important meeting at the White House, for the purpose 
of deciding whether an inquiry should not be made into the 
merging of the Western railroads, then under the control 
of E. H. Harriman. Elihu Root, then Secretary of State ; 
William H. Taft, Secretary of War; Charles Bonaparte, 



64 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Attorney General, were present ; Chairman Martin A. 
Knapp and Franklin K. Lane of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, and the special Counsel for the Commission — 
Frank B. Kellogg. The matter of the proposed inquiry was 
discussed, each man being asked, in turn, to express his 
opinion. Root and Knapp were not in favor of beginning 
an investigation of the railroad merger, Buonaparte, Kellogg, 
and Lane favored an immediate inquiry. Lane declared 
that, in a few weeks, when the report of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission was published, it would be impossible 
to avoid making the inquiry. 

At this point, President Roosevelt turned to William H. 
Taft, who as yet had expressed no opinion, saying, " Will, 
what do you think of this?" Mr. Taft said quietly, "It's 
right, isn't it? Well, damn it, do it then." And the plans 
for the famous Harriman Inquiry, the first real step taken 
toward curbing the power of public utilities, were then taken 
under consideration. 

During the inquiry, when E. H. Harriman was on the 
stand for hours, the Commissioners trying to extract, by round- 
about questioning, the admission from him that he would 
like to extend his control over the railroads of the country, 
Lane, who had been silent for some time, suddenly turned 
and asked Harriman the direct question. What would he 
do with all the roads in the country, if he had the power? 
With equal candor and simplicity, Harriman replied that he 
would consolidate them under his own management. This 
answer rang through the country. 

To Edward F. Adams 

Washington, February 16, 1907 

My dear Adams, — ... I think the standpoint taken by 
our railroad friends in 1882 is that which possesses their 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 65 

souls to-day. I am conscious each time I ask a question that 
there is deep resentment in the heart of the railroad official 
at being compelled to answer, but that he is compelled to, 
he recognizes. The operating and traffic officials of the rail- 
roads are having a very hard time these days with the law 
departments. They can not understand why the law de- 
partment advises them to give the information we demand, 
and I have heard of some most lively conferences in which 
the counsel of the companies were blackguarded heartily for 
being cowards, in not fighting the Commission. You cer- 
tainly took advanced ground in 1882, ... — there can be 
no such thing as a business secret in a quasi-public cor- 
poration. . . . Very truly yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
President, University of California 

Washington, March 31, 1907 

My dear Mr. Wheeler, — . . . I have taken the liberty 
of giving Mr. Aladyin, leader of the Group of Toil in the 
Russian Duma, a note of introduction. He's an immensely 
interesting young man, a fine speaker and comes from plain, 
peasant stock. He will talk to your boys if you ask him. 

During these days of panic in Wall Street the President 
[Roosevelt] has called me in often and shown in many ways 
that he in no way regrets the appointment you urged. I 
have been much interested in studying him in time of stress. 
He is one of the most resolute of men and at the same time 
entirely and altogether reasonable. No man I know is more 
willing to take suggestion. No one leads him, not even Root, 
but no one need fear to give suggestion. He lives up to his 
legend, so far as I can discover, and that's a big order. 

The railroad men who are wise will rush to the support of 



66 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

the policies he will urge before the next Congress, or they 
will have national ownership to face as an immediate issue, 
or a character of regulation that they will regard as intoler- 
able. 

You will be here again soon and I hope that you will come 
directly to our house and give us the pleasure of a genuine 
visit. . . . Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Elihu Root 

Washington, February 14, 1908 

My dear Mr. Secretary, — I have lately been engaged 
in writing an opinion upon the jurisdiction of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission over ocean carriers engaged in 
foreign commerce, and it has occurred to me that an ex- 
tensive American merchant marine might be developed by 
some legislation which would permit American ships to 
enjoy preferential through routes in conjunction with our 
railroad systems. The present Interstate Commerce Law, 
as I interpret it, gives to the Commission jurisdiction over 
carriers to the seaboard. It is the assumption of the law 
that rates will be made to and from the American ports and 
that at such ports all ships may equally compete for foreign 
cargo. 

Might it not be possible to extend the jurisdiction of the 
Commission over all American vessels engaged in foreign 
trade, and with such ships alone — they alone being fully 
amenable to our law — permit the railroad which carries 
to the port to make through joint rates to the foreign point 
of destination? There is so vast a volume of this through 
traffic that the preference which could thus be given to the 
American ship would act as a most substantial subsidy. 
There may be objections to this suggestion arising either 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 67 

out of national or international policy which render it un- 
worthy of further consideration. It has appealed to me, 
however, as possibly containing the germ of what Mr. Web- 
ster would have termed a "respectable idea." Faithfully 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To E. B. Beard 

Washington, December 19, 1908 

My dear Mr. Beard, — I have not seen the article in the 
Call, to which you refer, but have heard of it from a couple 
of Californians, much to my distress. Of course I appre- 
ciate that at a time of strain such as that which you shippers 
and business men of California are now undergoing, it is to 
be expected that the most conservative language will not be 
used. . . . The trouble is with the law. ... It is only 
upon complaint that an order can be made reducing a rate, 
and I understand that such complaints are at present being 
drafted in San Francisco and will in time come before us 
but such matters cannot be brought to issue in a week nor 
heard in a day, and when I tell you that we have on hand 
four hundred cases, at the present time, you will appreciate 
how great the volume of our work is, and that you are not 
alone in your feeling of indignation or of distress. If you 
will examine the docket of the Commission, you will find that 
the cases of the Pacific Coast have been taken care of more 
promptly within the last two years than the cases in any 
other part of the United States. I have seen to this my- 
self, because of the long neglect of that part of the coun- 
try. . . . 

I want to speak one direct personal word to you. You 
are now protesting against increased rates. I have outlined 
to you the only remedy [a change in the law] that I see 



68 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

available against the continuance of just such a policy on 
the part of the railroads, and I think it might be well for 
you to see that the Senators and Representatives from 
California support this legislation. It is not calculated 
in any way to do injustice or injury to the railroads. . . . 
This is a plan which I have proposed myself, and for 
which I have secured the endorsement of the Commis- 
sion. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce has en- 
dorsed it. The whole Pacific Coast should follow suit en- 
thusiastically. 

Please remember that I am not the Commissioner from 
California ; that I am a Commissioner for the United States ; 
and that it is not my business to fight the railroads, but to 
hear impartially what both sides may have to say and be as 
entirely fair with the railroads as with the shippers. I am 
flattered to know that the railroad men of the United States 
do not regard me as a deadhead on this Commission. My 
aggressiveness on behalf of the shipping public has brought 
upon my head much criticism, and it would be the greatest 
satisfaction for those who have been prosecuted for rebating 
or discovered in illegal practises to feel that they were able 
in any degree to raise in the minds of the shippers any ques- 
tion of my loyalty to duty. 

I expect to be in California during January, for a few days, 
and hope that I may see you at that time. Very sincerely 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, February 13, 1909 

My dear George, — ... I suppose you haven't seen my 
interview on the Japanese question. I gave it at the re- 
quest of the President [Roosevelt], because he said that the 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 69 

Republican Senators and Congressmen would not stand by 
him if it was going to be a partisan question in California 
politics. So I said that I would give the value of my name and 
influence to the support of his policy, so that Flint, Kahn, 
et al. y could quote me as against any attack by the Democrats. 
The President has done great work for the Coast. Congress 
never would have done anything at this time, and by the 
time it is willing to do something the problem will practically 
be solved. I am expecting to be roasted somewhat, in 
California, but I felt that it was only right to stand by the 
man who was really making our fight without any real 
backing from the East, and without many friends on the 
Pacific — so far as the "pollies" are concerned. 

. . . The Harriman crowd seems to think that they will 
all be on good terms with Taft, but unless I'm mistaken 
in the man they will be greatly fooled. . . . 

Have you noticed that nice point of constitutional law, 
dug up by a newspaper reporter, which renders Knox in- 
eligible as Secretary of State ? He voted for an increase in 
the salary of the Secretary of State three years ago. They 
will try to avoid the effect of the constitutional inhibition 
by repealing the act increasing the salary. Technically 
this won't do Knox any good, altho' it will probably be up- 
held by the Courts, if the matter is ever taken into the 
Courts. 

Roosevelt is very nervous these days but as he said to 
me the other day, "They know that I am President right 
up to March fourth." I took Ned and Nancy to see him 
and he treated them most beautifully. Gave Ned a pair of 
boar tusks from the Philippines and told him a story about 
the boar ripping up a man's leg just before he was shot, and 
to them both he gave a personal card. 

F. K. L. 



70 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

With this letter he sent a copy of a verse written by his 
daughter, not yet seven. 

" On through the night as the willows go weeping 
The daffodils sigh, 
As the wind sweeps by 
Right through the sky." 

To Charles K. McClatchy 

Sacramento Bee 

Washington, March 20, 1909 

My dear McClatchy, — I am just in receipt of your letter 
of March 15th, with reference to my running for Governor 
next year. 

There is nothing in this rumor whatever. I have been 
approached by a good many people on this matter, and 
perhaps I have not said as definitely as I should that I had 
no expectation of re-entering California politics. When I was 
last in California some of my friends pointed out to me the 
great opening there would be for me if I would become a 
Republican and lead the Lincoln-Roosevelt people. There 
does not seem to be any line of demarcation between a Dem- 
ocrat and a Republican these days, so that such a change 
would not in itself be an act of suicide. My own personal 
belief is that the organization in California on the Repub- 
lican side could be rather easily beaten, and we could do 
with California what La Follette did with Wisconsin. But I 
am trying not to think of politics, and I told those people 
who came to me that I thought my line of work for the next 
few years was fixed. 

. . . No one yet knows from Mr. Taft's line of policy 
what kind of a President he will make. Everybody is giving 
him the benefit of the doubt. The thing, I find, that hangs 
over all Presidents and other public men here to terrify them 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 71 

is the fear of bad times. The greatness of Roosevelt lay, in a 
sense, in his recklessness. These people undoubtedly have the 
power to bring on panics whenever they want to and to de- 
press business, and they will exercise that power as against 
any administration that does not play their game, and the 
"money power," as we used to call it, allows the President 
and Congress a certain scope — a field within which it may 
move but if it goes outside that field and follows policies 
or demands measures which interfere with the game as 
played by the high financiers, they do not hesitate to use 
their "big stick," which is the threat of business depres- 
sion. . . . 

There are a lot of things to be done in our State yet before 
we both pass out. ... As always, very truly yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Lawrence F. Abbott 
Outlook 

Washington, September 22, 1909 

My dear Abrott, — ... President Taft's suggestion of a 
Commerce Court is a very sensible one. We suggested the 
institution of such a Court some years ago, so that the ques- 
tion of nullifying our order will be brought up before men 
who have special experience. . . . The trouble with the 
Courts is that they know nothing about the question. 
Fundamentally it is not . . . law but economics that we deal 
with. The fixing of a rate is a matter of politics. That is 
the reason why I have always held that the traffic manager 
is the most potent of our statesmen. So that we should 
have a Court that will pass really upon the one question of 
confiscation — the constitutionality of the rates fixed — 
and leave experienced men to deal with the economic ques- 
tions. . . . 



72 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I have long wanted to see you and have a talk about our 
work. At times it is rather disheartening. The problem 
is vast, and we pass few milestones. The one great ac- 
complishment of the Commission, I think, in the last three 
years, has been the enforcement of the law as against re- 
bating. We have a small force now that is used in this 
connection under my personal direction, and I think the 
greatest contribution that we have made, perhaps, to the 
railroads has been during he time of panic when they 
were kept from cutting rates directly or indirectly and 
throwing each other into the hands of receivers.' 

The great volume of our complaints comes from the ter- 
ritory west of the Mississippi River and practically all of 
the larger cities in the inter-mountain country have com- 
plaints pending before us attacking the reasonableness of 
the rates charged them, and it is to give consideration to 
these that the Commission, as a body, goes West the first 
of the month. . . . 

I have just returned from a trip to Europe, and I find 
that what I said two or three years ago about the United 
States being the most conservative of the civilized countries 
is absolutely true. 

By the way, at the Sorbonne at Paris they are exhibiting 
the chair in which President Roosevelt will sit when he comes 
to deliver his address and I am thinking that he will have 
quite as hearty a reception in Paris as in any of our cities. 
Very truly yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

Washington, December 3, 1909 

My dear Doctor, — ... I think there is but little doubt 
that De Vries will receive the appointment, though of course 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 73 

everything here is in absolute chaos. . . . The best symp- 
tom in my own case is that I have been called in twice to 
consult over proposed amendments to the law, and the 
President's [Taft's] reference thereto in his forthcoming 
message. He seems to think my judgment worth something 
— more than I do myself, in fact — for down in my heart, 
though I do not let anybody see it, I am really a modest 
creature. 

Since my return from the West we have had one merry 
round of sickness in the house . . . but all are on their feet 
once more and as gay as they can be with a more or less 
grumpy head of the household in the neighborhood, (as- 
suming for the nonce that I am the head of the house- 
hold). 

The President is going to appoint Lurton. 1 He should 
have said so when he made up his mind to do it, which was 
immediately after Peckham's death. He would have saved 
himself an immense amount of trouble. Lurton seems to 
have been very hostile to the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, and is too old, but otherwise I hear nothing said 
against him. I really would like to see Bowers put on the 
bench very much. He has made a very favorable impression 
here, and is a clear lawyer, a very strong man, and in sym- 
pathy with Federal control that's real. 

By the way, I had a talk the other day with Attorney 
General Wickersham regarding the treatment of criminals, 
and I believe you can secure through him the initiation of 
an enlightened policy in this matter. He told me that he 
was going to make some recommendations in his report, 
and perhaps the President may deal with the matter slightly 
in his message. Wickersham is a thoroughly modern proposi- 
tion, and as he has charge of all the penitentiaries, and his 

1 To the Supreme Bench. 



74 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

recommendations, with relation to parole and such things, 
absolutely go with the President, I believe you could do 
more good in an hour's talk with him than you could effect 
in a year otherwise. If you could run down, during the holi- 
day vacation, I would bring you two together for a talk on 
this matter, and you, also, might take up the very live ques- 
tion with the President of cutting off red-tape in the courts. 
Give my love to Mrs. Wigmore, and tell her, too, that we 
would be most delighted to see her here. Faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

On December 9, 1909, President Taft reappointed Frank- 
lin K. Lane as a member of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission. 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane 

En route to California, Monday, March [1910] 

... I have spent a rather pleasant day reading, and 
looking at this great desert of New Mexico and Arizona. 
No one on board that I know or care to know, but the big 
sky and my books keep me busy. Do you remember that 
picture in the Corcoran Gallery with a wee line of land at 
the bottom and a great high reach of blue sky above, cover- 
ing nine-tenths of the canvas? I have thought of it often 
to-day — "the high, irrepressible sky." It is moonlight and 
the rare air gives physical tone, so that I feel a bit more like 
myself, as was, than is ordinary. . . . 

I have thought of a lecture to-day and you must keep 
this letter as a reminder and make me do it one of these days : 
The Problems of Railroad Regulation. The Traffic Manager 
as a Statesman : The Unearned Increment of our Railroads. 

And another : The Need of a World Bank : International 
and Independent Financial Authority, which shall fix stand- 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 75 

ards of value, based on no one metal or commodity, but on 
a great number of staples. 

I have thought much of the farm. It will be so far away 
and so impracticable of use ! But such an anchor to wind- 
ward, for two most hand-to-mouth spendthrifts ! . . . 



To Theodore Roosevelt 

Washington, April 29, 1910 

My dear Mr. Roosevelt, — Mr. Kellogg tells me that he 
expects to see you in Europe, and I avail myself of his offer 
to carry a word of welcome to you, inasmuch as I must 
leave for Europe the day after your arrival in New York, 
the President having appointed me as a delegate to the 
International Railway Congress at Berne. 

The country is awaiting you anxiously — not out of mere 
curiosity to know what your attitude will be, but to lead it, 
to give it direction. The public opinion which you developed 
in favor of the "square deal" is stronger to-day than when 
you left, and your personal following is larger to-daj' than 
it ever has been. There is no feeling (or if there is any it 
is negligible) that the President [Taft] has been consciously 
disloyal to the policies which you inaugurated or to his pub- 
lic promises. He is patriotic, conscientious, and lovable. 
This was your own view as expressed to me, and this view 
has been confirmed by my personal experience with him. It 
is also, I believe, the judgment of the country at large. 
But the people do not feel that they control the government 
or that their interests will be safeguarded by a relationship 
that is purely diplomatic between the White House and 
Congress. In short we have a new consciousness of Democ- 
racy, largely resulting from your administration, and it is 
such that the character of government which satisfied the 



76 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

people of twenty years ago is found lacking to-day. Prac- 
tically all the criticism to which this administration has been 
subjected arises out of the feeling of the people that their 
opinions and desires are not sufficiently consulted, and they 
are suspicious of everything and everybody that is not open 
and frank with them. 

Outside of a few of the larger states the entire country 
is insurgent, and insurgency means revolt against taking 
orders. The prospect is that the next House will be Demo- 
cratic, but the Democrats apparently lack a realization of 
the many new problems upon which the country is divided. 
Their success would not indicate the acceptance of any 
positive program of legislation ; it would be a vote of lack of 
confidence in the Republican party because it has allowed 
apparent party interest to rise superior to public good. The 
prospect is that every measure which Congress will pass at 
this session will be wise and in line with your policies, but 
the people do not feel that they are passing the bills. 

I have presumed to say this much, thinking that perhaps 
you would regard my opinion as entirely unbiased, and in 
the hope that I might throw some light upon what I regard 
as the fundamental trouble which has to be dealt with. 
Whether you choose to re-enter political life or not, men of 
all parties desire your leadership and will accept your advice 
as they will that of none other. 

Pardon me for this typewriting, but I thought that you 
might prefer a letter in this form which you could read to 
one in my own hand which you could not read. Believe me, 
as always, faithfully yours. 

Franklin K. Lane 

From Berlin, Lane received from Theodore Roosevelt, 
dated May 13, 1910, these lines, — 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 77 

"... I think your letter most interesting. As far as I 
can judge you have about sized up the situation right. With 
hearty good wishes, faithfully yours, 

Theodore Roosevelt 

To John H. Wigmore 

Washington, March 2, 1911 

My dear John, — No other letter that I have received has 
done me as much good or given me as much pleasure, or has 
been as much of a stimulus, as has yours. The fact that you 
took the time to go through the Report so carefully is an 
evidence of a friendship that is beyond all price, and of 
which I feel most unworthy. I have had the figures checked 
over, resulting in some slight changes, and will send you a 
revised copy as soon as it is printed. The newspaper criti- 
cisms are generally very friendly, although the Financial 
Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, and other railway organs 
are extremely bitter. The Western papers do not seem to 
have been very much elated over the decision. It has ap- 
peared to me from the beginning as if they had been " fixed" 
in advance and that their reports were always biased for 
the railroads, but the country at large will realize, I think, 
before long, that the decisions are sound, sensible, and in the 
public interest. Some of the least narrow of the railroad 
men also take this view. The best editorial I have seen is 
in the New York Evening Post. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

P. S. I got this note from Roosevelt this morning, headed 
The Outlook: — 

"Fine! I am really greatly obliged to you, and I shall 
read the Report with genuine interest. More power to your 
elbow ! Faithfully yours." 



78 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

"This report was known," Commissioner Harlan explains, 
"as the Western Advance Rate Case. It was one of the 
first of the great cases covering many commodities and 
applying over largely extended territories. In his opinion 
denying the rate advances proposed by the carriers, Com- 
missioner Lane discussed the Commission's new powers of 
suspending the operation of increased rates pending inves- 
tigation and the burden of proof in such cases. He mar- 
shalled a vast array of facts and figures and announced con- 
clusions that were accepted as convincing by the public at 
large. He then pointed out that the laws enforced by 
the Commission sought dominion over private capital for no 
other purpose than to secure the public against injustice and 
thereby make capital itself more secure." 

To William R. Wheeler 

Traffic Bureau, Merchants' Exchange 
San Francisco, California 

Washington, June 27, 1911 

Dear Sir, — Adverting to yours of June 22, in re express 
rates, I beg to advise that nothing can be added to my pre- 
vious letter unless it is the expression of my personal 
opinion that a rate should not be made for the carriage of 
20,000-pound shipments by express. 

We are receiving daily similar complaints to yours, re- 
specting the nonadjustment of express rates, and if you will 
call at this office we shall be pleased to reveal the reason 
for our failure, hitherto, to grant the relief desired. It is 
extremely warm in Washington at the present time, but if 
anything could add to the disagreeableness of life in the city 
it is the unreasoning insistence on the part of the traffic 
bureaus of the country that express rates shall be fixed over- 
night. 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 79 

I desire to say that I have given some year or two of more 
or less profane contemplation to this question, and have 
now engaged a large corps of men, under the direction of 
Mr. Frank Lyon as attorney for the Commission, to seek a 
way out of the inextricable maze of express company figures. 
Whether we will be able to find the light before the Infinite 
Hand that controls our destinies cuts short the cord, is a 
question to which no certain answer can be given. Would 
you kindly advise the importunate members of a most worthy 
institution, that express rates to San Francisco possess me 
as an obsessment. My prayer is at night interfered with by 
consideration of the question — "What should the 100 
pound rate be by Wells Fargo & Co. from New York to 
San Francisco?" And at night often I am aroused from 
sleep, feeling confident in my dreams that the mystic 
figure of "a just and reasonable rate," under Section One, 
on 100-pound shipments to San Francisco, had been de- 
termined, and awaken with a joyous cry upon my lips, to 
discover that life has been made still more unhappy by the 
torture of the subconscious mind during sleep. 

No doubt your shippers are being treated unfairly, both 
by the express companies and by the Interstate Commerce 
Commission. This is a cruel world. Congress itself adds 
to the torture, by almost daily referring to us some bill 
touching express rates or parcels post, or some such similar 
service, and while the thermometer stands at 117 degrees 
in the shade we are requested to advise as to whether ex- 
press companies should not be abolished. It has only been 
by the exercise of a rare and unusual degree of self-control 
on my part, and by long periods of prayer, that I have re- 
frained from advising Congress that I thought express com- 
panies should be abolished and designating the place to 
which they should be relegated. 



80 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

As perhaps you may have heard, I shall visit the Pacific 
Coast in person during the next few weeks, and there I 
trust I may have the pleasure of meeting you and your noble 
Governing Committees, to whom I shall explain in person 
and in detail the difficulties attaching to the solution of 
this problem. . . . Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Lawrence F. Abbott 
Outlook 

Washington, December 4, 1911 

My dear Abbott, — ... We are making history fast 
these days, and at the bottom of it all lies the idea, in the 
minds of the American people, that they are going to use this 
machine they call the Government. For the centuries 
and centuries that have passed, government has been some- 
thing imposed from above, to which the subject or citizen 
must submit. For the first century of our national life this 
idea has held good. Now, however, the people have grown 
in imagination, so that they appreciate the fact that the 
government is very little more than a cooperative institution 
in which there is nothing inherently sacred, excepting in so 
far as it is a crystallization of general sentiment and is a good 
working arrangement. And the feeling with relation to 
big business, when we get down to the bottom of it, is that 
if men have made these tremendous fortunes out of priv- 
ileges granted by the whole people, we can correct this by 
a change in our laws. They do not object to men making 
any amount of money so long as the individual makes it, 
but if the Government makes it for him, that is another 
matter. 

I have been meeting . . . with some of the commit- 
tees, in Congress and out, that are drafting bills regulating 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 81 

trusts, and I expect something by no means radical as a 
starter. 

You ask as to leadership in both Houses. There is not 
much in the Lower House that can be relied upon to do 
constructive work, so far as I can discover. Our Demo- 
cratic leaders all wear hobble skirts. But in the Senate 
there is some very good stuff. 

I expect to be in New York in January, and then I hope 
to see you. Very truly yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

When he was running for Governor in 1902, Lane made 
prison reform one of the foremost issues of his campaign. 
Several years later when a movement was started petitioning 
the Governor to parole Abraham Ruef, who had served a 
part of his term in the penitentiary for bribery in San Fran- 
cisco, Lane signed the petition. This brought a letter of 
remonstrance from his friend Charles McClatchy, editor 
and owner of the Sacramento Bee, who felt that such a move- 
ment was ill-timed and not in the interest of the public good. 

To Charles K. McClatchy 
Sacramento Bee 

Washington, December 12, 1911 

My dear Charles, — I have your letter regarding the 
paroling of Abraham Ruef, and, far from taking offense 
at what you say, I know that it expresses the opinion of 
probably the great body of our people, but I have long 
thought that we dealt with criminals in a manner which 
tended to keep them as criminals and altogether opposed to 
the interests of society. I am not sentimental on this propo- 
sition, but I think I am sensible. We are dealing with men 



82 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

convicted of crime more harshly and more unreasonably than 
we deal with dogs. Our fundamental mistake is that we ut- 
terly ignore the fact that there is such a thing as psychology. 
We are treating prisoners with the methods of five hundred 
years ago, before anything was known about the nature of 
the human mind. . . . There are, of course, certain kinds 
of men who should for society's sake be kept in prison as 
long as they live, just as there are kinds of insane people that 
should be kept in insane asylums until they die. . . . 

I think if you will get the thought into your mind that our 
present penal system is Silurian and unscientific — the same 
to-day as it was 10,000 years ago — you will see my stand- 
point. Our penitentiaries develop criminals, they make 
criminals out of men who are not criminals to begin with — 
boys, for instance. They debase and degrade men. The 
state by its system of punishment reaches into the heart of 
a man and plucks out his very soul. I am speaking of men 
who are when they enter responsive to good impulses. . . . 

I thoroughly appreciate the spirit in which you have 
written me, and I hope that you will get my point of view. 
I have known Abe Ruef for over twenty-five years. He was 
a perfectly straight young man and anxious to help in San 
Francisco. I do not know the influences that turned him 
into the direction that he took, but I am absolutely certain 
that that man has suffered mental tortures greater than any 
that he would have ever suffered if he had gone to a physical 
hell of fire. He may appear brave, but he is in fact, I will 
warrant you, a heart-broken man, because he has failed of 
realizing his own decent ideals. . . . He never was my 
friend, politically, socially, or otherwise, but my judgment 
is that society will be better off if he is allowed the limited 
freedom that a parole gives and given an opportunity to 
live up to his own ideal of Abe Ruef. 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 83 

Regards to Val, your wife, and family. As always, 
faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Charles K. McClatchy 
Sacramento Bee 

[Washington, January, 1912] 

My dear Charles, — I have your note regarding Ruef . 
... It seems to me you have made one good point against 
me, and only one, — that there are poor men in jail who 
ought to be paroled at the end of a year. Very well, why 
not parole them ? If they are men who have been reached 
by public opinion and are subject to it, I see no reason why 
they should be kept in jail. Every case must be dealt 
with by itself and to each case should be given the same 
kind of treatment that I give to Ruef. You will be ad- 
vocating this thing yourself one of these days, calling it 
Christian and civilized and denouncing those who do not 
agree with you as being barbarians. It may be that Ruef 
fooled me when he was just out of college, but I was a member 
of the Municipal Reform League which John H. Wigmore, 
now Dean of the Northwestern University Law School, Ruef 
and myself started. It did not last very long, but I think 
that Ruef was as zealous as any of us for good government. 
With many wishes for the New Year, believe me always, 
my dear Charles, yours faithfully, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John Crawford Burns 

London, England 

December 13, 1911 

My dear Burns, — I have felt grievously hurt, at hearing 
from Pfeiffer several times, that you had written him, and 



84 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

nary a word to me. The idea that I should write to you 
when you had nothing in the world to do but write me, 
never entered my head. I want you to understand distinctly 
the position which you now occupy in the minds of your 
friends. You are a gentleman of leisure, traveling in Europe 
with an invalid wife, necessarily bored, and anxious to meet 
with anything that will give you an interesting life. Under 
the circumstances, you may relieve your mind at any time, 
of any intellectual bile, by correspondence. ... If you 
wish something serious to do, I will formally direct you to 
make a report upon Railway Rates and Railway Service 
in Europe. This will give you some diversion in between 
your attacks of religion and architecture. 

Pfeiffer, I presume, has returned from the Far West, but 
so far I have not heard from him. The last letter I got 
was from the Yosemite. He seems to have been enchanted 
with that country. He says there is nothing in Europe 
to compare with it. It is splendid to see a fellow of his 
age, and with all of his learning, keep up his enthusiasm. 
It seems to me that he is more appreciative and buoyant 
than he was twenty years ago, and he is really very sane. 
His sympathies, unlike yours, are with the present and not 
with the dead past. 

You will be interested in knowing that Mr. T. Roosevelt 
is likely to be the next Republican nominee for President. 
Within the last six weeks it has become quite manifest that 
Taft cannot be elected. . . . And so you see, the whirligig 
of time has made another turn. Big Business in New York 
is looking to Roosevelt as a statesman who is practical. The 
West regards him as the champion of the plain people. He 
is keeping silent, but no doubt like the negro lady he is 
quite willing to be "fo'ced." 

On the Democratic side all of the forces have united to 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 85 

destroy Wilson, who is the strongest man in the West. The 
bosses are all against him. They recently produced an ap- 
plication which he had made for a pension, under the Car- 
negie Endowment Fund for Teachers, which had been 
allowed to lie idle, unnoticed for a year or so after its re- 
jection, but owing to campaign emergencies was produced, at 
this happy moment, to show that Wilson wanted a pension. 
As a Philadelphia poet whom you never heard of says : — 

" Ah, what a weary travel is our act, 
Here, there, ami back again, to win some prize, 
Those who are wise their voyage do contract 
To the safe space between each others' eyes." 

This line is in keeping with my reputation as an early Vic- 
torian. . . . Do write me some good long letters. You 
have a better literary style than any man who ever wrote 
a letter to me, and I love you for the prejudices that are 
yours. Give my love to your wife. As always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Theodore Roosevelt 

Washington, December 20, 1911 

My dear Colonel, — I have been thinking over what I said 
yesterday, and I am going to presume upon my friendship 
and, I may say, my affection for you to make a suggestion : 

Even though the call comes from a united party and 
under circumstances the most flattering, do not accept it 
unless you are convinced of two things: (1) that you are 
needed from a national standpoint and not merely from a 
party standpoint ; (2) that you are certain of election. 

Sacrifice for one's country is splendid, but sacrifice for 
one's party is foolish. You must feel assured before ac- 
ceding to the call, which I believe will certainly come, that 
it is more than party-wide, and that it is sufficiently strong 



86 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

to overcome the trend toward Democratic success. If I 
were asked I would say that I think both of these conditions 
are present — that the desire to have you again is much 
broader than any party, and so large that it would insure 
your victory ; — but no man is as wise a judge of these things 
as the man himself whose fortunes are at stake. 

Thanking you again for the pleasure of a luncheon, believe 
me, as always, faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Roosevelt in a letter marked private and confidential 
replied : — 

. . . "That is a really kind and friendly letter from you, 
and I appreciate it. Now I agree absolutely with you that 
I have no business under any circumstances to accept any 
such call, even in the greatly improbable event of its coming, 
unless I am convinced that the need is National, a need of 
the people and not merely a need of the Party. But as for 
considering my own chances in any such event, my dear 
fellow, I simply would not know how to go about it. I am 
always credited with far more political sagacity than I 
really possess. I act purely on public grounds and then 
this proves often to be good policy too. I assure you with 
all possible sincerity that I have not thought and am not 
thinking of the nomination, and that under no circumstances 
would I in the remotest degree plan to bring about my 
nomination. I do not want to be President again, I am not 
a candidate, I have not the slightest idea of becoming a 
candidate, and I do not for one moment believe that any 
such condition of affairs will arise that would make it necessary 
to consider me accepting the nomination. But as for the 
effect upon my own personal fortunes, I would not know how 
to consider it, because I would not have the vaguest idea 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 87 

what the effect would be, except that according to my own 
view it could not but be bad and unpleasant for me person- 
ally. From the personal standpoint I should view the 
nomination to the Presidency as a real and serious mis- 
fortune. Nothing would persuade me to take it, unless 
it appeared that the people really wished me to do a given 
job, which I could not honorably shirk. . . ." 



To Samuel G. Blythe 

Washington, January 6, 1912 

My dear Sam, — ... I, too, have been reading William 
James. His Varieties of Religious Experience is the only 
philosophic work that I was ever able to get all the way 
through. This thing gave me real delight for a week. 

Have just read Mr. John Bigelow's Reminiscences, or bits 
thereof, and find that the aforesaid John is much like another 
John that we know in this city, the fine friend of the Pan- 
American Bureau. He seems to have been a dignified and 
solemn gentleman who carried on correspondence with a 
great many men for a number of years, without . . . hav- 
ing indulged in a flash of humor in all his respectable 
days. . . . 

Will you support me for Supreme Court Justice? I see 
that I am mentioned. Between us, I am entirely ineligible, 
having a sense of humor. As always yours, 

Lane 

To Sidney E. Mezes 
President, University of Texas 

Washington, February 15, 1912 

My dear Sid, — Your weather has been no worse than ours, 
I want you to understand ; in fact, not so bad. I think the 



88 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

glacial period is returning and the ice cap is moving down 
from the North Pole. 

The Supreme Bench I could not get because I am a Demo- 
crat, and the President could not afford to appoint another 
Democrat on the t Bench. I do not know when McKenna goes 
out, and I am not going to be disturbed about it anyway. If I 
had not been unlucky enough to be born in Canada I could 
be nominated for President this year. Things are in a 
devil of a condition. We could have elected Wilson, hands 
down, if it had not been for Hearst's malevolent influence. 
He is at the bottom of all this deviltry. His aim is to 
kill Wilson off and nominate Clark, and Clark is in the lead 
now, I think. God knows whether he can beat Taft or 
not. It looks to me as if Taft will be nominated. I have 
a feeling somehow that the Roosevelt boom won't materi- 
alize. 

My love to the Missis and to Mr. House. As always 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

Washington, February 19, 1912 

My dear John, — For two weeks there has been standing 
on my desk a most elegantly bound set of your Cases on 
Torts sent to me by Little, Brown & Co. at your request. 
You do not need to be told, I know, how much I appreciate 
a thing that comes from you and how poverty stricken 
I am when it comes to making adequate return. I can 
prove that I have been working hard, but my work does 
not crystallize into anything which is worth sending to a 
friend. 

The fact is that I have never worked as hard in my life as 
I have lately. I get to my office about nine, and without 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 89 

going out of my room (for I take my lunch at my desk), 
stay until six, and work at home every night until half past 
eleven, and then take a volume of essays or poems to bed 
with me for half or three-quarters of an hour, and so to 

sleep. 

If the man in the White House had as much sense as I 
have, he would name you for the Supreme Bench without 
asking, and "draft" you, as Roosevelt says. By the way, 
I gave the suggestion of "draft" in a talk I had with him a 
month or so ago. 

The political situation is interesting, but altogether un- 
lovely. ... It looks as if Clark might be the nominee on 
the Democratic side. Taft is gaining in strength, and some- 
how I cannot feel that Roosevelt will ever be in it, although 
you know how I like him. The situation seems a bit arti- 
ficial. 

Give my love to Mrs. John. As always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, February 23, 1912 

My dear George, — . . . Yesterday I delivered an address 
before the University of Virginia on A Western View of 
Tradition — which when it is printed I will send out to 
you — and in the afternoon was taken up to Jefferson's 
home, Monticello. It is on a mountain, the top of which 
he scraped off. It overlooks the whole surrounding country, 
most of which at that time he owned. He planned the whole 
house himself, even to the remotest details, the cornices and 
the carvings on the mantels, the kind of lumber of 
which the floors were to be made, the character of the 
timbers used, the carving of the capitals on the columns, 
the folding ladder that was used to wind up the clock 



90 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

over the doorway, the registers on the porch that recorded 
the direction in which the wind was coming, as moved by 
the weather-vane on the roof, the little elevator beside 
the fireplace . . . and a thousand other details. 

... I would like nothing better if I had any kind of skill 
in using my hands than to take a year off and build a house. 
It is a real religion to create something, and you do not need 
a great deal of money to make a very beautiful little place. 
You must have one large room, and the house must be on 
some elevation, and you must get water, water, and water. 
... It is water that makes land valuable in California or 
anywhere else. Affectionately yours, 

F. K. L. 

To Carl Snyder 

Washington, March 6, 1912 

My dear Carl, — I have this minute for the first time seen 
the copy of Collier's, for February 24, 1912, and therefore 
for the first time my eyes lighted upon your most delicious 
roast of the Commerce Court. . . . 

I do not know what the outcome of this movement will 
be. The only settled policy of government is inertia. The 
House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, 
I believe, proposes to abolish the appropriation for the 
Court, which looks like a cowardly way to get at the thing, 
but perhaps it is most effective. However, I really doubt 
if they will have the nerve to do this. It is a mighty critical 
year, I think, in our history. It looks to me as if the reac- 
tionaries were going to get possession of both parties, and 
that a third party will be needed and nobody will have the 
nerve to start it. Roosevelt has got everything west of the 
Mississippi excepting Utah and Wyoming, in my judgment. 
That he will be able to get the nomination I am not so sure ; 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 91 

but he does not care a tinker's damn whether he gets it 
himself or not. That is the worst of it because the people 
won't give anything to a man that he does not want. . . . 
Well, we are living in mighty interesting times anyway. 
As always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

On February 22, 1912, Lane delivered the annual address 
at the University of Virginia. He spoke on American Tra- 
dition, saying that as Americans are physically, industrially, 
and socially the "heirs of all the ages" our supreme tradi- 
tion is a "hatred of injustice." That one of the great ex- 
periments that a Democracy should make is to find a more 
equitable distribution of wealth "without destroying in- 
dividual initiative or blasting individual capacity and 
imagination." This address brought a letter from Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, Justice of the Supreme Court. 



To Franklin K. Lane 

March 17, 1912 
My dear Sir, — Let me thank you at once for your Vir- 
ginia address, which I have just received and just read — 
read with the greatest pleasure. I admire its eloquence, 
its imagination, its style. I sympathize with its attitude 
and with most of its implications. I gain heart from its tone 
of hope. I am old — by the calendar at least — and at times 
am more melancholy, so that it does me good to hear the 
note of courage. One implication may carry conclusions 
to which I think I ought to note my disagreement, — the 
reference to unequal distribution. I think the prevailing 
fallacy is to confound ownership with consumption of prod- 
ucts. Ownership is a gate, not a stopping place. You tell 



92 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

me little when you tell me that Rockefeller or the United 
States is the owner. What I want to know is who consumes 
the annual product, and for many years I have been saying 
and believing that to think straight one should look at the 
stream of annual products and ask what change one would 
make in that under any regime. The luxuries of the few are 
a drop in the bucket — the crowd now has all there is. The 
difference between private and public ownership, it seems 
to me, is mainly in the natural selection of those most com- 
petent to foresee the future and to direct labor into the 
most productive channels, and the greater poignancy of 
the illusion of self-seeking under which the private owner 
works. The real problem, under socialism as well as under 
individualism, is to ascertain, under the external economic 
and inevitable conditions, the equilibrium of social desires. 
The real struggle is between the different groups of pro- 
ducers of the several objects of social desire. The bogey 
capital is simply the force of all the other groups against the 
one that is selling its product, trying to get that product for 
the least it can. Capital is society purchasing and consum- 
ing — Labor is society producing. The laborers unfortu- 
nately are often encouraged to think capital something up 
in the sky which they are waiting for a Franklin to bring 
down into their jars. I think that is a humbug and lament 
that I so rarely hear what seem to me the commonplaces 
that I have uttered, expressed. Your fine address has set 
me on my hobby and you have fallen a victim to the charm 
of your own words. Very truly, yours, 

O. W. Holmes 

P. S. Of course I am speaking only of economics not of 
political or sentimental considerations — both very real, 
but as to which all that one can say is, if you are sure that 



RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 93 

you want to go to the show and have money enough to buy a 
ticket, go ahead, but don't delude yourself with the notion 
that you are doing an economic act. I make the only re- 
turn I can in the form of the single speech I have made for 
the last nine years. 

To Oliver Wendell Holmes 

Justice of the Supreme Court 

Washington, March 20, 1912 

My dear Mr. Justice, — I sincerely thank you for the 
warmth and generosity of your comment on my Virginia 
speech. Your economic philosophy is fundamentally, I 
think, the same as mine - - that the wealth produced is a 
social product. And men may honestly differ as to how best 
that stream of foods and other satisfactions may be in- 
creased in volume, or more widely distributed. May I 
carry your figure of the stream further by suggesting that 
the riparian owner in England has the superior right, but 
in an arid country the common law rule is abandoned be- 
cause under new conditions it does not make for the greatest 
public good ? The land adjoining feels the need of the water, 
and society takes from one to give to the other. 

The last century was devoted to steaming up in produc- 
tion. This century, it appears to me, will devote itself more 
definitely to distribution. It is nonsense, of course, to say 
that because the rich grow richer the poor grow poorer ; 
but the poor are not the same poor, they, too, have found 
new desires. Civilization has given them new wants. 
Those desires will not be satisfied with largesse, and with the 
machinery of government in their hands the people are bound 
to experiment along economic lines. They will certainly 
find that they get most when they preserve the captain of 
industry, but may it not be that his imagination and fore- 



94 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

thought may be commanded by society at a lower share of 
the gross than he has heretofore received, or in exchange for 
something of a different, perhaps of a sentimental nature ? 

. . . Please pardon this typewritten note, but my own 
hand, unlike your copper-plate, is absolutely illegible. I 
have been raised in a typewriter age. 

Again thanking you for your letter, believe me, with the 
highest regard, faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

Washington, April 3, 1912 

My dear John, — You overwhelm me. . . . You have 
no right to say such nice things to an innocent and trusting 
young thing like myself. The flat, unabashed truth is 
that I appreciate your letter more than any other that I 
have received concerning that speech. By way of indicating 
the interest which it has excited I send you copies of some 
correspondence between Mr. Justice Holmes and myself. 

Our plans for the summer are very unsettled. The prob- 
ability is that we will go up to Bras D'Or Lakes, in Cape 
Breton, where we can have salt-water bathing and sailing 
and be most primitive. I should like greatly to run over 
with you to Europe, and, by way of making the tempta- 
tion harder to resist, let me know how you expect to go, 
and where. 

Give my love to the Lady Wigmore. As ever yours, 

F. K. L. 

To Daniel Willard 
President, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company 

Washington, June 19, 1912 

My dear Mr. Willard, — That was a warm cordial note 
that you sent me regarding my University of Virginia 






RAILROAD AND NATIONAL POLICIES 95 

address, and what you say of my sentiments confirms my 
own view that property must look to men like yourself for 
protection in the future — men who are not blind to public 
sentiment and whose methods are frank. The worst enemy 
that capital has in the country is the man who thinks 
that he can "put one over" on the people. An institution 
cannot remain sacred long which is the creator of injustice, 
and that is what some of our blind friends at Chicago do 
not see. Very truly yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John McN aught 
New York World 

Washington, March 23, 1912 

My dear John, — I am very glad indeed to hear from you 
and to know that you are in sympathy with my "eloquent" 
address at the University of Virginia. You give me hope 
that I am on the right track. As for Harmon and repre- 
sentative government, you won't get either. . . . Please 
see Mr. R. W. Emerson's Sphinx, in which occurs this line : 

" The Lethe of Nature can't trance him again 
Whose soul sees the perfect, which his eye seeks in vain." 

Fancy me surrounded by maps of the express systems 
of the United States, digging through the rates on uncleaned 
rice from Texas to the Southeast, dribbling off poetry to a 
man who sits in a tall tower overlooking New York, who 
once had poetry which has per necessity been smothered ! 
Dear John, read your Bible, and in Second Kings you will 
find the story of one Rehoboam, that son of Solomon, who 
was also for Harmon and representative government. 

I am looking out of the window at the funeral procession 
for the Maine dead, and it strikes me that our dear friend 



96 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Cobb has overlooked one trick in his campaign against T. R. 
Of course he has other arrows in his quiver, and no doubt 
this one will come later, but why not charge T. R. with 
having blown up the Maine? No one can prove that he 
did not do it. He then undoubtedly was planning to be- 
come President and knew that he never could be unless he 
was given a chance to show his ability as a soldier-patriot. 
He stole Panama of course, and is there any reason to be- 
lieve that a man who would steal Panama would hesitate 
at blowing up a battleship ? 

I hope you . . . are giving over the life of a hermit — 
not that I would advise you to take to the Great White Way, 
but the side streets are sometimes pleasant. As always, 
devotedly yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



V 
EXPRESS CASE -CABINET APPOINTMENTS 

1912-1913 

Politics — Democratic Convention — Nomination of Wilson — Report on 
Express Case — Democratic Victory — Problems for New Administration 
— On Cabinet Appointments 

To Albert Shaw 

Review of Reviews 

Washington, April 30, 1912 

My dear Doctor, — . . . You certainly are very much 
in the right. Everything begins to look as if the Republi- 
can party would prove itself the Democratic party after all. 
Our Southern friends are so obstinate and so traditional, 
and so insensible to the problems of the day, that while they 
are honest they are too often found in alliance with the 
Hearsts and Calhouns. The Republican party, on the other 
hand, seems to have courage enough to take a purgative 
every now and then. 

We must find ways of satisfying the plain man's notion 
of what the fair thing is, or else worse things than the recall 
of judges will come to pass. Every lawyer knows that the 
law has been turned into a game of bridge whist. People 
are perfectly well satisfied that they can submit a question 
to a body of fair-minded and honest men, take their con- 
clusion, and get rid of all our absurd rules of evidence and 
our unending appeals. 

97 



98 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

And as to economic problems, people are going to solve 
a lot of these along very simple lines. I think I see a great 
body of opinion rising in favor of the appropriation by the 
Government of all natural resources. 

We saw a lot of the Severances while they were here. 
Cordy made a great argument in the Merger Case, but if he 
wins, we won't get anything more than a paper victory — ■ 
another Northern Securities victory. 

Please remember me very kindly to Mrs. Shaw, and be- 
lieve me, as always sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Curt G. Pfeiffer 

Washington, May 21, 1912 

My dear Pfeiffer, — I am acknowledging your note 
on the day when Ohio votes. This is the critical day, for 
if T. R. wins more than half the delegation in Ohio, he is 
nominated and, I might almost say, elected. But I find that 
the Democrats feel more sure of his strength than the Re- 
publicans do. Have you noticed how extremely small the 
Democratic vote is at all of the primaries, not amounting 
to more than one-fourth of the Republican vote ? 

. . . The Democrats are in an awkward position. If 
Roosevelt is nominated, one wing will be fighting for Under- 
wood, to get the disaffected conservative strength, while 
the other wing will be fighting for Bryan, so as to hold as 
large a portion of the radical support as possible. Oh, well, 
we have all got to come to a real division of parties along 
lines of tendency and temperament and have those of us 
who feel democratic- wise get into the same wagon, and those 
who fear democracy, and whose first interest is property, 
flock together on the tory side. As always, yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 99 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, July 2, 1912 

My dear George, — I am off tomorrow for Baddeck, 
Cape Breton, where I shall probably be until the 1st of Sep- 
tember or thereabouts — if I can endure that long period 
of country life and absence from the political excitement 
of the United States. 

It looks, as I am writing, as if Wilson were to be nominated 
at Baltimore. If he is he will sweep the country ; Taft 
won't carry three states. 1 Wilson is clean, strong, high- 
minded and cold-blooded. To nominate him would be a 
tremendous triumph for the anti-Hearst people. I have 
been over at the convention several times. Hearst defeated 
Bryan for temporary chairman by making a compact with 
Murphy, Sullivan and Taggert. . . . Bryan has fought a 
most splendid fight. I had a talk with him. He was in 
splendid spirits and most cordial. The California delega- 
tion headed by Theodore Bell has been made to look like a 
lot of wooden Indians. Bell himself was shouted down with 
the cry of ''Hearst ! Hearst !", the last time he rose to speak. 
The delegation is probably the most discredited one in the 
entire convention. . . . 

My summer, I presume, will be put in chiefly in sailing a 
small yawl with Gilbert Grosvenor, rowing a boat, fishing a 
little, and walking some. My diet for the next two months 
will consist exclusively of salmon and potatoes, cod-fish 
and potatoes, and mutton and potatoes. 

I have just completed my report in the Express Case, 
a copy of which will be sent you. It has been a most 
tremendous task, and the work has not yet been com- 
pleted for we have to pass upon the rates in October; 
but I am in surprisingly good condition — largely, per- 
1 Taft carried Vermont and Utah. 



100 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

haps, because the weather has been so cool for the last 
month. . . 

All happiness, old man ! Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

"Lane had a long look ahead," says James S. Harlan, 
"that often reminded one of the extraordinary prevision 
of Colonel Roosevelt. One striking instance of this was in 
connection with this Express Case. 

"Early in the progress of the investigation of express 
companies undertaken by him in 1911, at the request of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, Lane warned a group 
of high express officials gathered around him that unless 
they promptly coordinated their service more closely to the 
public requirements, revised their archaic practices, re- 
adjusted and simplified their rate systems so as to eliminate 
discriminations, the frequent collection of double charges 
and other evils, and gave the public a cheaper and a better 
service, the public would soon be demanding a parcel post. 

"The suggestion was received with incredulous smiles, 
one of the express officials saying, apparently with the full 
approval of them all, that a parcel post had been talked of 
in this country for forty years and had never got beyond 
the talking point, and never would. As a matter of fact, there 
was little, if any, movement at that time in the public press 
or elsewhere for such a service by the government. But 
Lane's alert mind had sensed in the current of public thought 
a feeling that there was need of a quicker, simpler, and cheaper 
way of handling the country's small packages, and he saw 
no way out, other than a parcel post, if the express companies 
stood still and made no effort to meet this public need. 

"Within scarcely more than a year Congress, by the Act 
of August 24, 1912, had authorized a parcel post and such a 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 101 

service was in actual operation on January 1, 1913. It 
was not until December of the latter year that the express 
companies were ready to file with the Commission the in- 
genious and entirely original system Lane had devised for 
stating express rates. The form was so simple that even 
the casual shipper in a few minutes' study could qualify him- 
self for ascertaining the rates, not only to and from his own 
home express station but between any other points in the 
country. But by that time the carriage of the country's small 
parcels had permanently passed out of the hands of the express 
companies into the hands of the postal service, by which 
Lane's unique form for stating the express rates was adopted 
as the general form of showing its parcel post charges." 

To Oscar S. Straus 

Washington, July 3, 1912 

My dear Mr. Straus, — I thank you heartily for your 
appreciative note regarding my University of Virginia talk. 
I wanted to say something to those people, especially to the 
younger men, that would make them doubt the wisdom of 
staying forever with systems and theories not adapted to 
our day. 

As I write, word comes that Woodrow Wilson has been 
nominated. I do not know him, but from what I hear he 
promises if elected to be a real leader in the war against in- 
justice. The world wants earnest men right now — not 
cynics, but men who believe, whether rightly or wrongly ; 
and the reason that the East is so much less progressive 
as we say, than the West, is because the East is made up so 
largely of cynics. 

Thanking you once more for your appreciative words, 
believe me, sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



102 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
President, University of California 

Baddeck, Nova Scotia, July SI, [1912] 

My dear Mr. Wheeler, — Your letter followed me here, 
where at least one can breathe. This really is a most beauti- 
ful country filled with self-respecting Gaelic-speaking Scotch 
from the islands of the north — crofters driven here to make 
place for sheep and fine estates on their ancestral homes in 
the Highlands. 

I am proud of your words of commendation. The express 
job is the biggest one yet. I believe we've done a real serv- 
ice both to the country and to the express companies. The 
latter will probably live if their service and their rates im- 
prove. Otherwise the Government will put them out of 
business, requiring the railroads to give fast service for any 
forwarder, as in Germany. 

Politically, things look Wilson to me. Taft won't be in 
sight at the finish. It will be a run between Wilson and 
T. R. I can't name five states that Taft is really likely to 
carry. My friends in Massachusetts say Wilson will win 
there, and so in Maine. Well, I suppose you and I are in 
the same sad situation — eager to break into the fight but 
bound not to do it. Do you know I believe that T. R. has 
discovered, and just discovered, that it is our destiny to be 
a Democracy. Hence the enthusiasm which Wall Street 
calls whiskey. . . . Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, September 17, 1912 

My dear George, — I am mighty glad to get your Labor 
Day letter, but sorry that its note is not more cheerful and 
gay. I can quite understand your position though. We 



EXPRESS CASE— CABINET APPOINTMENTS 103 

are all obsessed with the desire to be of some use and un- 
willing to take things as they are. I do not know a pair of 
more rankly absurd idealists than you and myself, and along 
with idealism goes discontent. We do not see the thing 
that satisfies us, and we can not abide resting with the thing 
that does not satisfy us. We are of the prods in the world, 
the bit of acid that is thrown upon it to test it, the spur 
which makes the lazy thing move on. 

This summer I saw a great deal of a man . . . [who was] 
perfectly complacent. . . . And I noticed that he took no 
acids of any kind — never a pickle, nor vinegar, nor salad 
— but would heap half a roll of butter on a single sheet of 
bread and eat sardines whole. And I just came to the con- 
clusion that there was something in a fellow's stomach that 
accounted for his temperament. If I ever get the time I am 
going to try and work out the theory. The contented people 
are those who generate their own acid and have an appetite 
for fats, while the discontented people are those whose crav- 
ing is for acids. A lack of a sense of humor and a love for 
concrete facts, as opposed to dreams, goes along with the 
first temperament. You just turn this thing over and see 
if there is not something in it. I am long past the stage of 
trying to correct myself; I am just trying to understand a 
lot of things — why they are. . . . 

F. K. L. 

To John H. Wigmore 

Washington, July 3, 1912 

My dear John, — Of course you may keep the Napoleon 
book. It is intended for you. Your criticism of T. R.'s 
literary style is appreciated, and no doubt he lacks in pre- 
cision of thought. 

Now we shall have a chance to see what a college president 



104 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

can do as President of the United States. I believe Wilson 
will be elected. What a splendid jump in three years that 
man has made ! They tell me he is very cold-blooded. We 
need a cold-blooded fellow these days. . . . 

September 21, 1912 

. . . You will by this time have picked up all the poli- 
tics of the time. Wilson is strong, but not stronger than 
he was when nominated. T. R. is gaining strength daily, 
that is my best guess. He has the laboring man with him 
most enthusiastically but not unanimously, of course. The 
far West — Pacific Coast — is his. All the railroad men 
and the miners. . . . 

I am not sure of Wilson. He is not "wise" to modern 
conditions, I fear. Tearing up the tariff won't change 
many prices. Doesn't he seem to talk too much like a pro- 
fessor and too little like a statesman? Hearst is knifing 
him for all he is worth. He has fixed in the workingmen's 
minds that Wilson favors Chinese immigration. 

Well, when am I to see you again? And how is Mrs. 
John ? How I do wish you were here ! As always, 

F. K. L. 

To Timothy Spellacy 

Washington, September 30, 1912 

My dear Tim, — I have your fine, long letter of Septem- 
ber 23, and this is no more than just an acknowledgment. 
I am glad to know that you are taking so hearty an interest 
in the campaign. It is really too bad that you did not stay 
longer in Baltimore and see Bryan win out all along the 
line. 

I don't want a position in the Cabinet. I am not look- 
ing for any further honors, but I want to help Wilson make 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 105 

a success of his administration, for I think he will be elected. 
I am afraid that he will become surrounded by Southern 
reactionaries — men of his own blood and feeling, who are 
not of the Northern and more progressive type. We have 
got to cut some sharp corners in doing the things that are 
right. By this I don't mean that we will do anything that 
is wrong; but from the standpoint of the Southern Demo- 
crat it is illegal to have a strong central government — one 
that is effective — and we have got to have such a govern- 
ment if we are going to hold possession of the Nation. The 
people want things done. Wilson is a bit too conservative 
for me, but maybe when he realizes the necessity for strength 
he will be for it. 

I am sorry for B . Poor chap ! His alliance with 

Hearst undid years of good work. ... As always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Adolph C. Miller 

Washington, October 18, 1912 

My dear Adolph, — I have postponed until the last min- 
ute writing you regarding my proposed visit in California. 
I see now clearly that it is impossible for me to get out there 
this fall. The Express Case ... is still on my hands, and 
with all of my energy I shall not be able to get rid of it until 
the first of the year at least. . . . Moreover (and this is a 
personal matter that I wish you would not say anything 
about) ... I am doing my work in a great deal of pain, 
and have been for the last three or four weeks. ... I can- 
not work as hard as I did some time ago. . . . 

I rebel at sickness as much as I do at death. The scheme 
of existence does not appeal to me, at the moment, as the 
most perfect which a highly imaginative Creator could have 
invented. My transcendental philosophy seems a pretty 



106 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

good working article when things are going smoothly, but 
it is not quite equal to hard practical strain, I fear. 

Politically things look like Wilson, though I suppose T. R. 
will get California and a lot of other states. I think he will 
beat Taft badly. The new party has come to stay, and it 
will be a tremendous influence for good. I don't take any 
stock in the talk about T. R's personal ambition being his 
controlling motive. I think that he has found a religious pur- 
pose in life to which he can devote himself the rest of his 
days, not to get himself into office but to keep things 
moving along right lines. 

Remember me most kindly to your wife and President 
Wheeler. As always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William F. Mc Combs 
Chairman, Democratic National Committee 

Washington, October 19, 1912 

Dear Mr. McCombs, — I cannot go to California and 
make speeches for Governor Wilson without resigning from 
the Commission. Four years ago two Republican members 
of the Commission were strongly urged at a critical time in 
the campaign to get into Mr. Taft's fight so as to help with 
the labor vote. I insisted that they should not do it, and 
the matter was brought before the Commission, and we then 
decided that no member of the Commission should take 
part in politics. So you see when the telegrams began to 
come in this year, urging that I go out to California and the 
other Pacific Coast states, I was compelled to say that I 
was estopped by my position of four years ago. 

I have never wanted to get into a campaign as much as 
I have this one. Governor Wilson represents all that I 
have been fighting for, for the last twenty years in my State ; 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 107 

but I think that it would be almost fatal to the independence 
and high repute of this Commission for its members to take 
part in a national campaign. We have so much power that 
we can exercise upon the railroads and upon railroad men 
that any announcement made by a member of this Com- 
mission could properly be construed as a threat or a sugges- 
tion that should be heeded by the wise. I know that this 
view of the matter will appeal to you as entirely sensible 
when you reflect upon it, and to my impatient friends in 
California, to whom it has been very hard to say no. 

I am glad to see that you are holding the fight up so hard 
at the tail end of the campaign. That is when Democratic 
campaigns have so often been lost. Governor Wilson is 
maintaining himself splendidly, and our one danger has 
been over-confidence. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

About the political situation he wrote to one of his former 
Assistants in the City and County Attorney's office in San 
Francisco 

To Hugo K. Asher 

Washington, October 22, 1912 

My dear Hugo, — I have your long letter which you prom- 
ised in your telegram. Now, old man, I want to have a 
perfectly open talk with you. I understand your attitude 
of affectionate ambition for me, and I am mighty proud of 
it, that after the years we were associated together, the ups 
and downs we had, you feel the way you do. 

Wilson is going to be elected unless some miracle happens, 
and I would tremendously like to get out to California and 
speak to the people once more. You do not know just how 
the old lust for battle has come over me. Following your 



108 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

telegram came a letter from McCombs, the Chairman of 
the National Committee, saying that he had received a lot 
of telegrams urging him to have me go and that Governor 
Wilson would like me to. But I wrote him precisely as I 
have you. If the members of this Commission once get 
into politics, the institution is gone to hell, for we can make 
or unmake any candidate we wish. This is the most power- 
ful body in the United States, and we must act with a full 
sense of the responsibility that is on us. . . . 

As for being a member of Wilson's Cabinet, I don't want 
to be. In the first place I can't afford it. There is no Cabi- 
net man here who lives on his salary, and as you know, I 
have got nothing else. I save nothing now out of the salary 
that I get, and if the social obligations of a Cabinet position 
were placed upon me I would have to run in debt. . . . 

Furthermore, I am doing just as big work and as satis- 
factory work as any member of the Cabinet. The work that 
a Cabinet officer chiefly does is to sign his name to letters or 
papers that other people write. There is very little con- 
structive work done in any Cabinet office. While the glam- 
our of intimate association with the President — the honor 
that comes from such a position — appeals to me, for I still 
have all my old-time vanity and love of dignity and appre- 
ciation ; yet the position that I occupy is one of so much 
power, and I am conscious so thoroughly of its usefulness, 
that I do not want to change it. I should be more or less 
close to the President anyway, I presume. His friends are 
my friends, and I shall have an opportunity to help make 
his administration a success by advising with him, if he 
desires my advice. 

Now, old man, I have talked to you very frankly, and I 
know that you will understand just what I mean. If I were 
out of office I would have been in Wilson's campaign a year 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 109 

ago. If I wanted a Cabinet position now I would resign 
from the Commission and go out to help him. I think prob- 
ably if I felt that California's vote was necessary to Wilson's 
success and that I could help to get it, I would take the latter 
course, although it is not clear that that would be my duty, 
in view of conditions in the Commission. 

With warmest regards, believe me, as always, faithfully 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Francis G. Newlands 
Reno, Nevada 

Washington, October 28, 1912 

My dear Senator, — I am delighted at the receipt of 
your long letter, for I have been very anxious to know how 
you felt about your own State. Of course it has been a fore- 
gone conclusion for some time that Wilson would carry the 
United States, but I was desirous that you should carry 
Nevada for your own sake. . . . 

In my judgment the Interstate Trades Commission needs 
all of your concentrated energy for the next year. The 
bill should be your bill, and you should be the leading au- 
thority upon the matter. 

Wilson should look to you for advice along this line of 
dealing with the trust problem. He will, if you have the 
greater body of information upon the subject. Of course 
Roosevelt did not know where he was going as to his Trades 
Commission, and he would not have had any opportunity 
were he elected to go any farther, . . . because that Com- 
mission has got to feel its way along. Wilson, you can see 
from his speeches, has swallowed Brandeis' theory without 
knowing much about the problem, but he certainly has 
handled himself well during the campaign. . . . What 



110 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

he does will very largely depend, I think, upon those who 
surround him. He must have access to sources of informa- 
tion outside of the formal administrative officers who make 
up his Cabinet. This is a very delicate way of saying that 
he must have a sort of "kitchen cabinet" made up of men 
like you and myself who will be willing to talk frankly to 
him, and whom he will listen to with confidence and respect. 
If he can get the Southerners into line with the Northern 
Democrats he can make over the Democratic Party and 
give it a long lease of life. If he cannot do this, and his party 
splits, Roosevelt's party will come into possession of the 
country in four years, and hold it for a long time. . . . 

I am glad to see that you have been able to take so per- 
sonal and direct an interest in the campaign. Faithfully 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Following the news of the Democratic victory, in the elec- 
tion of Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency, Lane sent these 
letters : — 

To Woodrow Wilson 
Trenton, N. J. 

Washington, November 6, 1912 

My dear Governor, — The door of opportunity has opened 
to the Progressive Democracy. I know that you will enter 
courageously. The struggle of the next four years will be 
to persuade our timid brethren to follow your leadership, 
"gentlemen unafraid." I am persuaded from my experience 
here that no President can be a success unless he takes the 
position of a real party leader — the premier in Parliament 
as well as a chief executive. The theoretical idea of the 
President's aloofness from Congress — of a President dealing 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 111 

with the National Legislature as if he were an independent 
government dealing with another — is wrong, because it 
has been demonstrated to be ineffective and ruinous. We 
need definiteness of program and cooperation between 
both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. There is generally 
one end of the Avenue that does not know its own mind, 
and sometimes it is one, and sometimes the other. 

Your friends have been made happy through the cam- 
paign by the manner in which you have conducted your- 
self. You spoiled so many bad prophecies. 

With heartiest of personal congratulations, believe me, 
faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William Jennings Bryan 

Washington, November 6, 1912 

My dear Mr. Bryan, — The unprecedented heroism of 
your fight at Baltimore has borne fruit, and every man who 
has fought with you for the last sixteen years rejoices that 
this victory is yours. Now comes the time when it is to 
be proved whether we are worthy of confidence. We shall 
see whether Democrats will follow a wise, aggressive, 
modern leadership. Faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To James D. Phelan 

Washington, November 6, 1912 

Dear Phelan, — Hurrah ! Hurrah ! and again Hurrah ! 
You have done nobly. The victory in California came late, 
but it was none the less surprising and gratifying. We can 
dance like Miriam, as we see the enemies of Israel go down 
in the flood. 

I shall expect to see you here before long. With warm- 



112 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

est congratulations to you personally. As always, sincerely 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Herbert Harley 

Washington, November 18, 1912 

My dear Mr. Harley, — ... There are many hopeful 
signs, as you say, not the least of which is that the Su- 
preme Court has at last been moved to amend its equity 
rules. The whole agitation for judicial recall will do good 
because it will not lead to judicial recall but to the securing 
of a superior order of men on the bench and to simplified 
procedure. I find that it is better to decide matters 
promptly and sometimes wrongly than to have long delays. 
The people have very little confidence in our courts, and 
this is because of one reason : Our judges are not self -owned ; 
either they are dominated by a political machine or by asso- 
ciations of an even worse character. Few men on the bench 
are corrupt ; many of them are lazy, and others are chosen 
from the class who feel with property interests exclusively. 
I am heartily in sympathy with a movement such as that 
you are promoting. It is in my opinion a very practical 
way — perhaps the only practical way — of heading off 
universal judicial recall. This is a Democracy and the people 
are going to have men and methods adopted that will give 
them the kind of judicial procedure that they want. They 
are not going to be unfair unless driven to be radical by 
intolerable conditions. . . . Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Immediately after Woodrow Wilson's election in Novem- 
ber, telegrams and letters from different parts of the country, 
and especially from his many friends in California, began 



EXPRESS CASE— CABINET APPOINTMENTS 113 

to reach Lane asking that he should consider himself avail- 
able for a Cabinet position, offering support and requesting 
his permission for them to make a strong effort in his behalf. 
This he emphatically refused, saying that he was not a can- 
didate, but in spite of his refusals, editorials began to appear 
in many Western papers. 



To Charles K. McClatchy 
Sacramento Bee 

Washington, November 25, 1912 

My dear Charles, — I received your note and this morning 
have a copy of the paper containing the cartoon on "Un- 
finished Business," the original of which, by the way, I 
should like to have for my library. . . . 

I know absolutely nothing about the suggestion made 
by the Call as to my being appointed to the Cabinet. I 
rather think that it was Ernest Simpson's friendly act, 
though I have not heard from him at all. Three men have 
been to me from the Coast who wanted to be in the Cabinet, 
and I have told each one the same thing : — That I was not 
a candidate ; that no one would speak to the President for 
me with my consent ; but that I would not say that I would 
not accept an appointment, because I would do almost any- 
thing to make Wilson's administration a success, for I be- 
lieve that he has faced the right way and the only difficulty 
that he will have will be in securing strong enough sup- 
port to carry out his own policies. I think he lacks some- 
what in adroitness and that his campaign was much less 
radical than he would voluntarily have made it. I do not 
know him and shall not go near him unless he sends forme. 
If he does send for me I shall tell him the truth regarding 
anybody of whom he speaks to me. I shall advocate no- 



114 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

body. I am not going to be a job peddler or solicitor. My 
present position makes all the demand upon my imagination, 
initiative, and capacity that my abilities justify. I could 
not work any harder or do any better work for the people 
in any position that the Government has to give. I am 
not at all enamored of the honor of a Cabinet place. 

Now, I am talking to you in the utmost frankness as if you 
were sitting just across the table from me. Of course what 
I am saying to you is absolutely private and personal. . . . 

We will just let this matter rest "on the knees of the gods," 
and I shall try to serve with as little personal ambition 
moving me as is possible with a man who has some tempera- 
ment. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Ernest S. Simpson 
San Francisco, Cat. 

Washington, November 26, 1912 

My dear Simpson, — How it ever entered into your head 
to give me so splendid a boom for a position in Wilson's 
Cabinet I do not know. Someone suggested that the tip 
came from Ira Bennett at this end, and I see that the Sacra- 
mento Bee suggests that the railroads wish to remove me 
from my present sphere of troublesomeness ; but my own 
guess is that your own good heart and our long-time friend- 
ship was the sole cause of this most kindly act. 

Some of the California papers, I notice, have had edi- 
torials saying I should stay where I am (which is not a dis- 
agreeable fate to be condemned to, barring a slight surplus 
of work), but of course Wilson is not going to appoint anyone 
to his Cabinet because of pull. He has a more difficult job 
than any President has ever had since Lincoln, because he 
has to reconcile a progressive Northern Democracy with a 



EXPRESS CASE— CABINET APPOINTMENTS 115 

conservative Southern Democracy, and satisfy one with 
policies and another with offices. My guess is that he will 
have to turn over the whole question of patronage practically 
to his Cabinet and that he will become the actual leader of 
his party and attempt to formulate the legislative policies 
of the party. He has a distinct ideal of what the Presi- 
dency may be made. Whether he can make good under 
conditions so apparently irreconcilable is a question that 
time only can answer. His political family he will choose 
for himself. They ought to be the very largest men that 
our country can produce, and I am not fool enough to think 
that I am entitled to be in such a group. 

With the warmest thanks, my dear Simpson, for your 
kindness, believe me, as always, cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Fairfax Harrison 

Washington, November 26, 1912 

My dear Mr. Harrison, — That is an exceedingly inter- 
esting and philosophical presentation of your reason for 
adherence to the Progressive Party. I understand your 
point of view and I sympathize with it thoroughly. I had 
the hope that Colonel Roosevelt would carry several of the 
Southern states. The Democratic party of the North is 
distinct from the Democratic party of the South, at least 
I fear that it is. The next four years will demonstrate the 
possibility of these two elements living together in effective 
cooperation. If Governor Wilson is a mere doctrinaire 
the present victory will be of no value to the Democratic 
party, but may be of great value to the country, for the 
horizontal cleavage in the two parties will become manifest, 
unmistakable, and open, and out of the breaking up will 
come a re-alignment upon real lines of tendency. If President 



116 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Wilson attempts to do anything which satisfies the reason- 
able demand of the progressive North he will run counter to 
the traditional policy of the South ; that is to say, effective 
regulation of child labor, of interstate corporations— railroad 
and industrial — flood waters, irrigation projects. [These,] 
and a multitude of other matters make necessary the wiping 
out of state lines to the extent that a national policy shall 
be supreme over a state policy. As our good Spanish friend 
said some centuries ago, "Where two men ride of a horse 
one must needs ride behind." 

This fact is stronger than any written word, and facts 
are the things which statesmen deal with. If the South 
is large enough to see this — if it has grown to have national 
vision — the hope of the Northern Democrat can be real- 
ized. Otherwise the traditionalists of both North and South 
will make a party by themselves, and the rest of the country 
will follow in your lead into the new party or a new party. 

With warm regards, believe me, cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To James P. Brown 

Washington, November 27, 1912 

My dear Jim, — I see your point of view and am glad you 
have taken the position that you have, because you can 
demonstrate whether there is anything excepting a sawed- 
off shot-gun that will compel some editors to tell the 
truth. . . . 

I shall not read your pamphlet because I have too much 
other reading that I am compelled to do. My own guess, 
being totally ignorant on the subject, is that you have vio- 
lated the Sherman Law, but everybody knows that the 
Sherman Law should be amended and the conditions stated 
upon which there may be combination. Do get out of your 



EXPRESS CASE— CABINET APPOINTMENTS 117 

head, however, the idea that a railroad corporation and an 
industrial corporation are subject to the same philosophy, 
as to competition. One is necessarily a monopoly and there- 
fore must be regulated ; the other is not necessarily a mo- 
nopoly, and the least regulation that it can be subjected to 
the better. We have let things go free for so long that we 
have created a big problem that sane men must deal with 
sensibly ; not admitting all there is to be right, but recog- 
nizing every natural and legitimate economic tendency. 
With warm regards, believe me, as always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Adolph C. Miller 

Washington, December 4, 1912 

My dear Adolph, — Hon. J. J. Loudon, Minister from 
the Netherlands to the United States, left last night for 
San Francisco and will be there about the ninth of the month. 
I have told him somewhat of you and I want you to call on 
him. He is one of the most charming men in Washington, 
really a poet in nature. He loves the beautiful and good 
things of the world and is totally unspoiled by success and 
position. . . . 

It is very good to know that you and President Wheeler 
have a sort of mutual agreement on me for a Cabinet position, 
but I don't think of it for myself. ... I find that I do 
not have the ambition that I once had, excepting to do the 
work in hand just as well as possible, and I am altogether im- 
patient with the way I do it. I should like to see you Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. There is to be some change made 
in our currency laws during the next four years, and a man 
of perfectly sane, level mind is tremendously needed to guide 
Wilson in this matter, for I guess he is very ignorant upon 
the subject. Especially is this true if Bryan goes into the 



118 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Cabinet. E. M. House, who is Sid Mezes' brother-in-law, 
is as close to Wilson as any other man, and I will drop him 
a note, telling him something about you, for I know that 
he is interested in selecting Cabinet officers as he has been 
talking to me about possible Attorney Generals. I have 
told him that I wanted nothing. . . . 

Mezes is the same adroit diplomat that he has always 
been, since receiving the Presidency at Texas. He is doing 
big things for his University and says that in two or three 
years he will be in a position to retire, and will retire and 
spend the most of his time in Europe ; but unless my guess 
is wrong, his ambition has at last been fired and he will look 
for other worlds to conquer if he achieves what he is after 
in Texas. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Edward M. House 

Washington, December 13, 1912 

My dear Mr. House, — Another suggestion as to the At- 
torney Generalship. . . . Have you ever heard of John H. 
Wigmore who is now Dean of the Law Department of the 
Northwestern University ? He is one of the most remark- 
able men in our country. . . . He has written the greatest 
law book produced in this country in half a century, Wig- 
more on Evidence, besides several minor works. There is 
no lawyer at the American bar who is not familiar with his 
name and his work. . . . 

. . . Wigmore is a Progressive democrat with a capital 
P. and a small d ; can give reason for his faith based on 
his philosophy of government. He has national vision 
and has rare good common sense. The man who can write 
a good law book is rarely one who would make a good lob- 
byist, although Judah P. Benjamin was this sort of genius. 



EXPRESS CASE— CABINET APPOINTMENTS 119 

So with Wigmore. He is practical, wise, in the sense that 
this word is used by the boys on the street ; knows men 
and knows how to deal with them ; never lets theory get 
the better of judgment ; commands as much respect for 
his strength as for his reasonableness; has the enthusiasm 
of a boy for all good things ; and has infinite capacity for 
hard work; can say "No" without developing personal 
bitterness ; and is above all a gentleman in face, manner, 
and nature. All this I have said with enthusiasm, but every 
word of it is true. I have known him for thirty years. . . . 

He would not thank me for writing this letter, I know. 
The only way he could be had to serve would be by per- 
suading him that he is absolutely needed. . . . 

You have brought this long letter upon your own head 
by the gracious nature of your invitation to me to advise 
with you. Very truly yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 

President, University of California 

Washington, December 23, 1912 

Dear Dr. Wheeler, — What you say regarding the Presi- 
dent-to-be is extremely interesting. That he is headstrong, 
arbitrary, and positive, his friends admit. These are real 
virtues in this day of slackness and sloppiness. I have just 
returned from New York where I have talked with McAdoo 
and House who are extremely close to him, and advising 
him regarding his Cabinet, and they tell me he is a most 
satisfactory man to deal with. He listens quite patiently 
and makes up his mind, and then "stays put." His Cabinet 
will be his advisers but no one will control him. 

I heard him make that speech at the Southern Society 
dinner, which was really much larger than the audience 



120 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

could understand. It was a presentation of the theory 
that the thought of the nation determined its destiny and 
that we could only have prosperity if our ideal was one 
of honor. His warning to Wall Street, that an artificial 
panic should not be created, was done in a most impressive 
way. . . . 

I was asked to give the names of men from California 
who would make good Cabinet material, and I named Phelan 
and Adolph Miller. The currency question will be the big 
problem in the next two or three years, and I should like 
Wilson to have the benefit of as sane a mind as Miller's ; 
but I fancy that even if everything else was all right there 
might be some difficulty in getting a college professor to 
appoint another college professor. 

I hope we shall see you here soon. W T ith holiday greetings 
to Mrs. Wheeler and the Boy, believe me, as always, faith- 
fully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Sidney E. Mezes 
President, University of Texas 

Washington, December 23, 1912 

My dear Sid, — I have your letter enclosing a telegram 
from Miller. I received a note from him acknowledging the 
telegram. He was evidently extremely delighted at being 
remembered. The sturdy, strong old Dutchman has a whole 
lot of sentiment in him ; and he makes few friends, has 
drawn pretty much to himself, I think, and falls back upon 
those whom he has known in earlier days. I sent a note 
to Mr. House regarding him. He would be a splendid man 
to have here in some capacity connected with the Govern- 
ment, now that we are to deal with currency matters. I told 
Mr. House that he could find out all about Miller from you. 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 121 

I saw House a couple of times in New York. He cer- 
tainly is an adroit and masterful diplomat. The fact is 
I do not know that I have seen a man who is altogether so 
capable of handling a delicate situation. By some look 
of the eye or appreciative smile at the right moment he gives 
you to understand his sympathy with and full comprehension 
of what you are saying to him. They tell me in New York 
that he is really the man closest to Wilson, and he tells 
me that Wilson is a delightful man to deal with because he 
has got a mind that is firm as a rock. . . . 

I send my Christmas greetings to you both. We have a 
sick little girl on our hands, but she is coming along all right 
now. As always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

Washington, January 8, 1913 

My dear John, — ... You may not know it, but I sug- 
gested your name to Mr. House, an intimate of President- 
elect Wilson, for Attorney General. . . . He told me that 
he gave the letter to Governor Wilson. . . . 

Like so many of the Southerners, I fear that Wilson's 
idea is that he can declare a general policy and be indifferent 
as to the men who carry it out. There is a certain lack of 
effectiveness running through the South which makes for 
sloppiness and a lack of precision. I have found that gen- 
eralizations do not get anywhere. The strength of any 
proposition lies in its application. The railroads and the 
trusts and the packers, and all the others who are violating 
the statutes, are indifferent as to how big the law is and 
upon what sound principles it is based, provided they have 
a lot of speechmakers to enforce the law. They don't care 
what the law is ; their only concern is as to its enforcement. 



122 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I am going to give the Democratic Party four years of honest 
trial, and then if it has not more precision, definiteness, and 
clearness of aim, am going to call myself a Progressive, or 
a Republican, or something else. 

Wilson is strong, capable of keeping his own counsel, 
and capable of making up his own mind. In these three 
respects he differs materially from our present President 
whose last flop on the arbitration of the Panama Canal prop- 
osition is characteristic. . . . 

Now, old man, let me say to you that you must take the 
very best of care of yourself, for we need you more than 
anybody else in this country, right at this time. As always 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wig more 

Washington, January 20, 1913 

My dear John, — I have received both of your letters, 
and I am very glad that you made that mistake regarding 
my address for it brought me two letters instead of one. 

I received your Continental Legal History months ago and 
thought that I had acknowledged it with all kinds of appre- 
ciation, but perhaps I only thought the things. ... I 
turned the book over to Minister Loudon of the Netherlands 
who knew the Dutch professor who had written one of the 
articles, and the rascal has not returned the book, but I 
shall get it from him one of these days. . . . 

Washington is now greatly stirred because Wilson has 
frowned upon the Inaugural Ball — a very proper frown, to 
my way of thinking — but inasmuch as all of the merchants 
who advance money for the inaugural ceremonies recoup 
themselves from the receipts from the Inaugural Ball, there 
is much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and 



EXPRESS CASE— CABINET APPOINTMENTS 123 

Wilson will enter Washington, in my judgment, a very un- 
popular president, locally. The fact is, I think, he is apt 
to prove one of the most tremendously disliked men in Wash- 
ington that ever has been here. 

He has a great disrespect for individuals, and so far as 
I can discover a very large respect for the mass. His code 
is a little new to us ; and I feel justified in proceeding upon 
the theory that every man should help him, and that it is 
within his (Wilson's) proper function to throw Mr. Every- 
man down whenever public good requires it, and that his 
silence never estops him from interfering at any time. Per- 
haps you cannot make out just what this means. I am dic- 
tating, sitting in my room at home with a very bad cold, 
and perhaps I do not know precisely what I mean myself; 
but I am trying to say that under all circumstances Wilson 
regards himself as a free man, and that he is bound by no 
ties whatever to do anything or to follow any course ; that 
he recognizes no such thing as consistency, or logic, or grati- 
tude, as in the slightest embarrassing him. . . . 

I do hope that the President will get some capable effective 
administration officers who will take the burden of pat- 
ronage off his shoulders and give him a chance to think on 
the money question, which is his big problem. I like his 
Chicago speech, I like his New York speech, but I do not 
find many people who understand him, because he is really 
a sort of philosopher. He teaches the psychology of new 
thought, the influence and effect of thought upon government. 

I have written an article for the World's Work which is 
to appear in March, entitled What I Am Trying To Do, 
but it is really sort of an answer to one or two articles that 
they have had upon the railroad side of the question of reg- 
ulation — a demonstration of the chaotic condition of things 
that existed prior to the establishment of the Commission ; 



124 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

and that the effect of regulation has been to increase 
railroad earnings and put things upon a stable and more 
satisfactory basis. ... I find that I have a copy of the 
proofs in the office and I am going to send it to you and 
ask you to criticise it. . . . 

With my love to your good wife, believe me, as always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Joseph N. Teal 

Washington, January 20, 1913 

My dear Joe, — ... You know we practically have 
the power now to make a physical appraisement. . . . We 
should not ourselves attempt to arrive at cost. That is a 
very hard thing for the railroads to furnish. They have 
taken good care to destroy most of the books and papers 
that would show cost. 

Politically, I hear of no news. Wilson is able to keep 
his own counsel more perfectly than anybody I have ever 
known, and nobody comes back from Trenton knowing 
anything more than when he went. . . . The money 
question is going to be the big one, and it looks to me 
as though certain gentlemen were preparing to intimidate 
him with a panic, which they won't do because he will appeal 
to the country. He has got splendid nerve, and while Wash- 
ington won't like him a little, little bit, the country, I think, 
will put him down as a very great President. As always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Edward M. House 

Washington, January 22, 1913 

Dear Mr. House, — You ask me what is the precise polit- 
ical situation on the Pacific Coast as to various candidates 
for the Cabinet. 



EXPRESS CASE — CABINET APPOINTMENTS 125 

As I have told you, I am to be eliminated from consider- 
ation. California has but one candidate, one who was in 
Governor Wilson's primary campaign and who made the 
fight for him in that state, in the person of James D. Phelan 
whom you have met. . . . Recognition given to Phelan 
will be given to the foremost man in the progressive fight in 
California. . . . He is a brilliant speaker and a man of 
excellent business judgment. . . . He has fine social quality 
and sufficient money to maintain such a position in proper 
dignity. Not to recognize him in some first-class manner 
would be a triumph for his enemies — and his enemies are 
the crooks of the state. 

Joseph N. Teal who is spoken of from Oregon as a possible 
Secretary of the Interior, is a good lawyer and a most public- 
spirited man who has been identified with every sane move- 
ment for progress in that state. He is a man of means and 
is deeply interested in questions of conservation and the 
improvement of our waterways. . . . 

... As a matter of party politics I do not think that any 
Pacific Coast state can be made Democratic by the appoint- 
ment of a member of the Cabinet from it ; as a matter of 
national politics, it seems to be necessary that that part 
of the country should have a voice in the council of the Pres- 
ident. 

Now, I want to say a word or two on a more important 
matter. You realize, I presume (and Governor Wilson 
evidently does) that there is talk of a probable panic in the 
air. He dealt with this matter masterfully in his New York 
speech. Worse things than panic can befall a nation. We 
must preserve our self-respect as a self-governing people. 
But what is the cause of this loose talk ? Apprehension. 
The business interests of the country do not know what 
they are to expect. As a party we are too much given to gen- 



126 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

eralization; we have too little precision of thought. You 
will notice how the New York papers of yesterday speak 
of Governor Wilson's bill regarding the regulation of trusts. 
This is something definite, and does not frighten because 
it is known. The problems we have to deal with — the tar- 
iff, currency, and trusts — should all be dealt with in this 
same manner. The Administration should have a definite 
program on each one of these questions; and I mean by 
that, bills framed in conference between the leaders which 
should be presented as party measures at the very first pos- 
sible moment. I have information that the banks are al- 
ready saying that they will stop loans until these questions 
are dealt with. This is the way by which panic can be pro- 
duced. The country is too prosperous to allow a widespread 
industrial panic if the measures favored by the Govern- 
ment commend themselves to the people as sane and neces- 
sary. Why can't we, as the boys on the street say, "beat 
them to it" ? If Congress is called by the middle of March, 
and the tariff is quickly put out of the way, and a currency 
bill promptly follows, we can restore the mind of the country 
to its normal state by midsummer. You know that this 
problem of government is largely one of psychology. The 
doctor must speak with definiteness and certainty to quiet 
the patient's nerves, and the doctor is the party as repre- 
sented in the President and Congress. 

With warm regards to Mrs. House, believe me, as always, 
cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mitchell Innes 

Washington, February 26, 1913 

My dear Mr. Innes, — I received your pamphlet and 
have read it through with the deepest interest. These young 



EXPRESS CASE— CABINET APPOINTMENTS 127 

men L are deserving of the strongest encouragement. I 
have no criticism whatever to make of their prospectus — for 
that word, I presume, without slight, can be properly used. 

My conviction is that we can find no solution for the prob- 
lems of social, political, economic, or spiritual unrest. "The 
man's the man" philosophy has taken hold of the world. 
We have lost all traditional moorings. We have no religion. 
We have no philosophy. Our age is greater than any other 
that the world has seen. We have been lifted clear off our 
feet and taken up into a high place where we have been 
shown the universe. The result has been a tremendous 
and exaggerated growth of the ego, and we have regarded 
ourselves as masters of everything, and subject to nothing. 
Agnosticism led to sensualism, and sensualism had its foun- 
dation in hopelessness. We are materialists because we have 
no faith. This thing, however, is being changed. We are 
coming to recognize spiritual forces, and I put my hope for 
the future, not in a reduction in the high cost of living, nor 
in any scheme of government, but in a recognition by the 
people that after all there is a Goc in the world. Mind 
you, I have no religion, I attend no church, and I deal all 
day long with hard questions of economics, so that I am 
nothing of a preacher ; but I know that there never will come 
anything like peace or serenity by a mere redistribution of 
wealth, although that redistribution is necessary and must 
come. 

If I were these young men and wished to concentrate 
upon some economic question, I should put my time in on 
the cost of distribution. . . . That is the economic problem 
of the next century — how to get the goods from the farm 
to the people with the lowest possible expenditure of effort ; 

1 A group of young men organized for social and political betterment, who sought 
advice. 



128 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

how to get the manufactured product from the factory to 
the house with the least possible expense. I have an idea 
that we have too many stores, too many middlemen, too 
much waste motion. So that I have only two thoughts to 
suggest : — The first is that the ultimate problem is to sub- 
stitute some adequate philosophy or religion for that which 
we have lost ; and the second is to concentrate on the simple 
economic problem. Have we the cheapest system of dis- 
tribution possible? . . . Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



VI 

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 

1913-1915 

Appointment as Secretary of the Interior — Reorganization of the De- 
partment — Home Club — Bills on Public Lands 

His appointment, as Secretary of the Interior, came to Lane 
in a letter from President-elect Wilson, stating that he was 
being "drafted" by the President for public service in his 
Cabinet. The letter was written about the middle of Feb- 
ruary, 1913. The urgent manner of the appointment was 
caused by Lane's frankly-expressed reluctance to leave his 
work on the Interstate Commerce Commission, where op- 
portunity for yet fuller accomplishment had been assured 
by his recent appointment as Chairman of the Commission. 
Seven years of application to the intricate problems of ad- 
justment between the conflicting claims of the public, the 
shippers, and the railroads, did not solve all the issues in- 
volved in new and profoundly interesting cases coming up 
for adjudication. In addition to this natural desire to ex- 
pand and perfect the technique of administration of his 
Commission, Lane dreaded the great increase in social and 
financial demands involved in a Cabinet position. In addi- 
tion to these reasons, the change in service would mean 
work with men that he knew only slightly, if at all, and 
under a President whom he had never met. Perhaps the 
consideration that weighed more heavily than any of these, 

129 



130 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

in his feeling of reluctance, was that the portfolio of the 
Department of the Interior, with its congeries of ill-assorted 
bureaus was in itself unattractive to a man with Lane's love 
of logical order. His liking for strong team-work and for 
the building of morale among a force of mutually helpful 
workers seemed to have no possible promise of gratification 
among bureau chiefs as unrelated as those of the General 
Land Office, the Indian Office, the Bureau of Pensions, 
Patent Office, Bureau of Education, Geological Survey, 
Reclamation Service, and Bureau of Mines. 

It was, therefore, with something of the spirit of a drafted 
man that Lane set his face toward his new work. Members 
of his immediate family recall days of depression after the 
appointment first came, but the cordial response of the press 
of the country to his appointment, the flooding in of many 
hundreds of letters and telegrams of congratulation, and 
President Wilson's own cordiality — lifted Lane's mood to 
its normal hopefulness. 

In relating the history of the appointment itself, Arthur 
W. Page, of the World's Work, writes, after talking with 
E. M. House of the matter, "House recommended Lane, as 
perhaps the one man available, adapted to any Cabinet 
position from Secretary of State down. At one time Lane 
was slated for the War Department, at another time an- 
other department and finally placed as Secretary of the In- 
terior because being a good conservationist, as a Western 
man he could promote conservation with more tact and less 
criticism than an Eastern man." 

Confronted by a complex and definite task, Lane's mind 
quickened to the attack. The situation of the Indian 
seized his sympathy. In his first official report he wrote, 
"That the Indian is confused in mind as to his status and 
very much at sea as to our ultimate purpose toward him is 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 131 

not surprising. For a hundred years he has been spun round 
like a blindfolded child in a game of blindman's buff. Treated 
as an enemy at first, overcome, driven from his lands, nego- 
tiated with most formally as an independent nation, given 
by treaty a distinct boundary which was never to be changed 
'while water runs and grass grows,' he later found himself 
pushed beyond that boundary line, negotiated with again, 
and then set down upon a reservation, half captive, half 
protege." 

With this at heart Lane wrote a letter of vigorous appeal 
to John H. Wigmore to become his First Assistant. 



To John H. Wigmore 

Washington, March 9, 1913 

My dear John, — I want you as my First Assistant. It 
is absolutely essential that I should have you ! ! I am aim- 
ing to gather around me the largest men whom I can secure 
and to form a cabinet of equals. Four years of this life 
here would bring a great deal of satisfaction to you. You 
would meet the distinguished men of the world. It is the 
center of all the great law movements of the world, — for 
peace, international arbitration, reform in procedure, and 
such matters. Beside that, we have two or three of the 
greatest problems to meet and solve that have ever been 
presented to the American people. First in the public 
mind is the land problem. How can we develop our lands 
and yet save the interest of the Nation in them? Second, 
and I think perhaps this should be first, is the Indian prob- 
lem. Here we have thousands of Indians, as large a popu- 
lation as composes some of the States, owning hundreds of 
millions of dollars' worth of property which is rapidly rising in 
value. I am their guardian. I must see that they are 



132 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

protected. They have schools over which we have abso- 
lute control — the question of teachers that they are to 
have, the question of the kind of education that they are 
to be given, the question of industry that they are to pur- 
sue. Their morals, I understand, are in a frightful state, 
largely owing to our negligence and the lack of enforcement 
of our laws. We can save a great people; and the First 
Assistant has this matter as his special care. I do not 
know of any place in the United States which calls for as 
much wisdom and for as great a soul as this particular job. 
I will give you men under you over whom you will have 
entire control and who will be to your liking. I will give 
you men to sit beside you at the table who will be of your 
own class. You can do more good in four years in this place 
than you can possibly do in forty where you are now. 
There are a lot of men who can teach law, and lots of men 
who can write the philosophy of the law, but there are few 
men who can put the spirit of righteousness into the busi- 
ness, social, and educational affairs of an entire race. Think 
of that work ! Beside that you have the constructive work 
in framing and helping to frame a line of policy as to the 
disposition of our national lands — the opening of Alaska. 

Now, John, I have looked over the entire United States 
and you are the only man that I want. The salary is five 
thousand a year. You can live on that here without em- 
barrassment. The President will be delighted to have you, 
and you will find him treating you with the same considera- 
tion and giving you the same dignity that he does all the 
members of his Cabinet ; all the Supreme Court. I have 
never seen a man more considerate, more reasonable. Dr. 
Houston, who has become Secretary of Agriculture, left 
Washington University in St. Louis, under an arrangement 
by which he can return at the end of his term. You, doubt- 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 133 

less, could make a similar arrangement, and if you wish to, 
you will have plenty of opportunity to give one or two 
courses of lectures in the University during the year. 

I have thought seriously of going out to see you, but with 
Cabinet conditions as they are it is impossible, for we are 
passing upon important questions now that prevent that. 
I am very selfish in urging you to this, but I am also giving 
you an opportunity to do work that will be more congenial 
than any you have ever done, and to be with a more con- 
genial lot of people. If there is any doubt in your mind let 
me know, but don't say "No" to me. The country needs 
you. You have done a great work. There is nothing 
higher to be done in your line. Now come here and help 
in a great constructive policy. Sincerely and affectionately, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Walter H. Page 
World's Work 

Washington, March 12, 1913 

My dear Page, — I have just now seen your letter of 
March 2nd, else it would have had earlier recognition. 

The President is the most charming man imaginable to 
work with. Most of us in politics have been used to being 
lied about, but there has been a particularly active set of 
liars engaged in giving the country the impression that W. 
W. was what we call out West a "cold nose." He is the 
most sympathetic, cordial and considerate presiding officer 
that can be imagined. And he sees so clearly. He has no 
fog in his brain. 

As you perhaps know, I didn't want to go into the Cab- 
inet, but I am delighted that I was given the opportunity 
and accepted it, because of the personal relationship ; and 
I think all the Cabinet feel the way that I do. If we can't 



134 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

make this thing a success, the Democratic Party is abso- 
lutely gone, and entirely useless. 

I hope next time you are down here I shall see you. Cor- 
dially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Edwin Alderman 
President, University of Virginia 

Washington, March 17, 1913 

My dear Dr. Alderman, — Your letter of the 14th gives 
me exceptional satisfaction, . . . because it brings with it 
extremely good news. You say you will win in your fight 1 
and that rejoices me even more than it does to be told of the 
real satisfaction that you get out of my appointment. 

It was a surprise to me. It came at the last minute. I 
had to introduce myself to the President-elect the day be- 
fore the inauguration. I find him consideration itself in 
Cabinet meetings and he never seems to be groping. In 
my mental processes I find myself constantly like a man 
climbing a mountain, pushing through belts of fog, but his 
way seems clear and definite. 

You certainly would feel at home around the Cabinet 
table, and all of us would rejoice to see you there. ... I 
shall take your note home to Mrs. Lane and show it to her 
with much pride. . . . Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Theodore Roosevelt 

Washington, March 24, 1913 

My dear Colonel, — I have received a great many hun- 
dred letters, but I think I can honestly say that no other 
one has given me the pleasure that yours has. I am strug- 

1 After a long serious illness Dr. Alderman was regaining health. 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 135 

gling hard to get the reins of this six-horse team in my hands 
and every day I feel more acutely the weight of the respon- 
sibility that I bear. The last few weeks have been put in 
being interviewed by Senators and Congressmen, who wish 
to name men for the few positions in the office. It has been 
rather enjoyable, and they have been fair and by no means 
peremptory. The hardest place I have to fill is that of 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs. How absurd to try to get 
a man to handle the interests of an entire race, owning a 
thousand million dollars' worth of property, and have to 
offer a salary of $5,000 a year ! 

I hope that you will feel free to give me the benefit of any 
advice as to the conduct of my department that may hap- 
pen to come to you out of your great experience. As al- 
ways, faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Lawrence F. Abbott 
Outlook 

Washington, April 9, 1913 

My dear Lawrence, — The Japanese are reducing the 
value of California lands by buying a piece in a picked val- 
ley, paying any price that is demanded. They swarm then 
over this particular piece of property until they reduce the 
value of all the adjacent land. No one wishes to be near 
them ; with the result that they buy or lease the adjoining 
land, and so they radiate from this center until now they 
have possession of some of the best valleys. Really the 
influx of the Japanese is quite as dangerous as that of the 
Chinese. The proposed legislation in California is not 
to exclude Japanese alone, but to make it impossible for 
any alien to own land, at least until he declares his in- 
tention to become a citizen. Inasmuch, of course, as 



136 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Orientals can not become citizens, this disbars them from 
owning land. 

There is, of course, as in all things Calif ornian, a good deal 
of hysteria over this matter, and I think your Progressive 
friends are trying to put the Democrats in a bit of a hole 
by making it appear that the Democrats are being influ- 
enced by the Federal Government to take a more conserv- 
ative course than the Progressives desire. 

My information is that some restrictive legislation will be 
passed by the legislature, no matter what Japan's attitude 
may be, but Japan's face will be saved and every need met 
if the legislation is general in terms. . . . 

April 20, 1913 
... I do not like the sudden turn that Johnson seems 
to have taken in the last day or two but I still have faith 
that those people out there will do the sensible thing and 
allow us to save Japan's face while very properly excluding 
the Japanese from owning land in California ; and I have 
no objection whatever to excluding all the Englishmen and 
Scotchmen who flock in there without any intention of be- 
coming citizens. As always, yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William M. Bole 

Great Falls Tribune 

Washington, May 26, 1913 

My dear Mr. Bole, — That is just the kind of a letter that 
I want and that is helpful to me. As to the settler, I have 
one policy — to make it as easy as possible under the law for 
the bona fide settler to get a home, and to make it just as diffi- 
cult as possible for the dummy entryman to get land, which he 
will sell out to monopolies. These Western lands are needed 
for homes for the people, not as a basis of speculation. 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 137 

As to the Reclamation Service. . . . There really was a 
very bad showing made by the Montana projects. It was dis- 
heartening to feel that we had spent so many million dollars 
and that the Government was looked upon as a bunko sharp 
who had brought people into Montana where they were slowly 
starving to death. The Government has returned to Mon- 
tana almost as much as her public lands have yielded, whereas 
in other states, like Oregon and California, less than a quarter 
of the amount they have yielded has been returned to them. 

Ever since I came here Senators and Congressmen have 
been overwhelming me with curses upon the Reclamation 
Service, and I thought I ought to find out for myself just 
what the facts were. I gave every one a chance to tell his 
story. Now I am being overwhelmed with protests against 
the discontinuance of this work. Every state is insisting 
that I shall now start up some new enterprises or continue 
some old ones, and I do not know where the money is going 
to come from. We are bound to be short of funds even to 
continue existing work, if we can get no money out of proj- 
ects that are really under way, and there seems to be a 
unanimity of opinion among Western Senators and Con- 
gressmen that payment by the settlers must be postponed, 
because they are having a hard enough time as it now is. I 
certainly am not going to be a party to gold-bricking the 
poor devil of a farmer who has been told by everybody that 
he is being charged twice as much as he ought to be charged 
by the Government. . . . Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Fairfax Harrison 

Washington, June 10, 1913 

My dear Mr. Harrison, — I have not had a minute for a 
personal letter in a month. Hence my shabbiness toward 



138 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

you. Condorcet's Vie de Turgot, I am sorry to say, I have 
not read. Does he say anything as to how to make a rec- 
lamation project pay, or as to what is the best method of 
teaching Indians, or how much work a homesteader should 
do on his land before being entitled to patent? These are 
the great and momentous questions that fill my mind. 

I had thought perhaps that as a member of the Cabinet 
I would have an, opportunity, say once a month or so, to 
think upon questions of statecraft and policy, but I find 
myself locked in a cocoon — no wings and no chance for 
wings to grow. 

As to my inability to get to you of a Sunday, let me tell 
you that that is the one day when somewhat undisturbed I 
catch up with the week's work. "Ah, what a weary travel 
is our act, here, there and back again to win some prize." 

I hope some of these nights to be able to make you ac- 
quainted with some of my colleagues. They are a charm- 
ing lot. Every one has a sense of humor and as little par- 
tisanship as possible, and still bear the title of Democrat. 
You would enjoy every one of them, including Bryan, who 
is fundamentally good. 

With kindest regards, cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Frank Reese 

Washington, July 2, 1913 

My dear Frank, — I am delighted to get your letter and 
to know that I still stand well with my California friends, 
especially yourself, but I am not going to run for United 
States Senator. Of course, I am not making a virtue of 
not running, and I certainly am gratified to know that you 
at least think that I could be elected. My work here is 
just as interesting as any work that a Senator has. Under 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 139 

this primary system I do not believe there is any chance for 
a man who has not got a great deal of money. The candi- 
date must devote practically a year of his time to make the 
race, must be able to support his family and himself in the 
meantime. . . . Now, when I knew you first I had no 
money. I have the same amount to-day, so that you see 
there is no possibility of my getting into such a fight. 
Furthermore, we have Phelan as a candidate, and it seems 
to me he ought to be acceptable. There was also some talk 
of Patton getting into the race, and he is a good man. 
Thankfully and cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Early in July, 1913, Lane started on a tour of investiga- 
tion of National Reclamation projects, Indian reservations 
and National Parks. With him went Adolph C. Miller, who 
had become the Director of the Bureau of National Parks in 
May. They turned to the Northwest, beginning in Minn- 
esota and then proceeding to Montana, Wyoming, and Wash- 
ington. That he might be thoroughly informed as to condi- 
tions in each place, Lane sent ahead of him an old friend and 
trusted employee, William A. Ryan, whose part it was to go 
over each project or reservation and find what the causes for 
complaint were, where poor work had been done, what groups 
and individuals were dissatisfied, and why. In no way was 
William Ryan to let it be suspected that he was in any way 
identified with the Department of the Interior. Traveling in 
this way, two weeks ahead of the Secretary, Ryan was able 
to put a complete report of each project in Lane's hands 
some time before he arrived, so that the Secretary was 
thoroughly familiar with all complaints and conditions before 
he was met on the train by the representatives of the Depart- 
ment, who naturally wished to show him only the best work. 



140 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

In addition to this, Lane everywhere held public meetings, 
inviting all settlers to meet him and make their complaints. 

This plan enabled him to cover the ground touched by his 
Department in a comparatively short time. He traveled 
by night, wherever possible, and interviewed all those who 
wished to see him upon business from seven in the morning 
until twelve or one at night. Sometimes, in a day, he went 
a hundred and fifty miles in an automobile, spoke to many 
groups of farmers in different places, heard their complaints 
against the Department, and told them what the Govern- 
ment was trying to do for them. 

During this first tour of inspection Lane reached Port- 
land, Oregon, the latter part of August, and received a tele- 
gram from the President asking him to go directly to Denver, 
there to represent the President and address the Confer- 
ence of Governors, on August 26th. 

Lane left the completion of the proposed itinerary of in- 
vestigation, in Oregon, to Miller and turned back to Col- 
orado. He made the opening address at the Governors' 
Conference and then rejoined his party in San Francisco, 
the first of September. Here, after several days of confer- 
ences and speeches, while standing in the sun reviewing the 
Admission Day parade of the Native Sons, he collapsed. 
This proved to be an attack of the angina pectoris which, 
several years later, returned with violence. For three weeks 
he was ill, but at the end of that time, against the doctor's 
orders, he insisted upon returning to Washington to his work. 

To Mark Sullivan 
Collier s Weekly 

Washington, November 6, 1913 

My dear Sullivan, — I want to thank you for your sym- 
pathetic notice regarding my hard luck out in California, 




FRANKLIN K. LANE, MRS. LANE, MRS. MILLER, AND 
ADOLPH C. MILLER 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 141 

and to let you know that I am in just as good shape now as 
I have been for twenty years. 

At the end of your little comment you spoke of conditions 
in the lower grades of the Department as being almost as 
bad as if they were corrupt. I have not your article before 
me, but I think this is the meat of it. I wish you would tell 
me just what you mean by this. I know that lots of things 
come to men like you that do not reach my ears, although 
I have retained pretty well my old newspaper faculty of 
smoking things out. 

If we have anything here that is almost rotten, I want to 
know it before it gets thoroughly rotten. I have found a 
lot of things that were wrong, and have set most of them 
right. There has already been a great improvement ; for 
instance, in Indian affairs. Under the last Administration, 
for example, the highest bid on 200,000 acres of Indian 
oil lands was one-eighth royalty and a bonus of one dollar 
an acre. We recently leased 10,000 of these same acres at 
one-sixth royalty and a bonus of $500,000. 

I have had an examination made into probate matters, 
in Oklahoma, and found an appalling condition of things. 
In one county where there are six thousand probate cases 
pending, all involving the interests of Indian minors, the 
guardians in three thousand cases were delinquent in filing 
reports, and otherwise in complying with the law. This 
week I have arranged with the Five Civilized Tribes to 
institute a cooperative method of checking up all of these 
accounts and giving them personal consideration ; espe- 
cially appointing an attorney to look after the interests of 
these minors in each of the counties in eastern Oklahoma. 
We are to aid the Oklahoma courts in cleaning up the State. 

Let me have any facts that will be of help. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



142 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To Edward M. House 

Washington, November 19, 1913 

My dear Colonel, — I had a call last Sunday morning 
from Mr. Blank of New York, who came to feel me out on 
the reorganization of the Democratic party in New York 
City, with particular reference to the question of how to 
treat one William R. Hearst. . . . 

. . . [He] has been working for some years, evidently 
in more or less close but indirect alliance with Hearst, 
through Clarence Shearn and a man named O'Reilly, who 
is Hearst's political secretary. In re-creating the Demo- 
cratic organization in New York, he felt it necessary to take 
Hearst's assistance. 

I was perfectly frank with him, saying that Hearst would 
be pleased no doubt to reorganize a new Tammany Hall, or 
any other Democratic organization, provided he could run 
it. He would stand in with anybody and be as gentle as a 
queen dove for the purpose of destroying the existing or- 
ganization, but that he was a very overbearing and arbi- 
trary man, with whom no one could work in creating a new 
organization, unless he regarded himself as an employee of 
Hearst. Moreover, I did not see how it was possible to 
take Hearst and his crowd, even on a minority basis, so long 
as they were fighting the Administration, and that I under- 
stood Hearst had recently more emphatically than ever 
read himself out of the Democratic Party. I told Blank 
that ... I should not expect any cooperation between the 
Federal Government and an organization in which Hearst 
was a factor. However, I said that I knew nothing what- 
ever as to the feeling of any member of the Cabinet or the 
President respecting the matter, because I had not discussed 
the matter with them. 

... I am writing this because I want you to know what 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 143 

is going on. Evidently Blank came over from New York 
on the midnight train and had no other business here except 
to see me, and perhaps others, on this matter. . . . Cor- 
dially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

When President Wilson took Franklin K. Lane from the 
Interstate Commerce Commission to put him in his Cabinet 
there arose the question of his successor, on the Commis- 
sion. After consulting Lane, the President appointed in 
his place, John Marble, also of California. A few months 
after his appointment Mr. Marble died suddenly, and Lane 
lost one of his closest friends. 



To James H. Barry 
San Francisco Star 

Washington, December 1, 1913 

My dear Jim, — I didn't get your telegram until Mon- 
day, but I had taken care of you in the same way that I 
took care of myself, in regard to flowers. I bought three 
bunches, one for you, one for Mrs. Lane, and one for myself. 

The most surprising thing, my dear Jim, is the manner 
in which Mrs. Marble has taken John's death. We took 
her to our house, where the morning after his death she told 
me that she had talked with him ; that he had chided her 
on breaking down constantly. Since then, both morning 
and evening, she says she has seen him and talked with him. 
The result is a spirit on her part almost of gayety, at times. 
She is really reconciled to his going, because he has told her 
that it was best and that he has other work to do. 

I don't know what to say of all this. It mystifies me. 
It has tended greatly to support me against the depth of 



144 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

sorrow which I felt at the beginning. There is no evidence 
of hysteria on her part, whatever. She dictated to Mrs. 
Lane, who was sitting beside her, some of the things that 
John said to her. It certainly is a glorious belief, at 
such a time, and I am not prepared to say that it is not so, 
and that its manifestations are not real. 

... It is an impossible thing to get a man to take his 
place, either on the Commission or in our hearts. I be- 
lieve that he worked himself to death. . . . Affectionately 
yours, 

F. K. L. 

To Edward F. Adams 

Washington, January 10, 1914 

My dear Mr. Adams, — ... Our most difficult problem 
is that of water. Colorado, for instance, claims that all of 
the water that falls within her borders can be used and 
should be used exclusively for the development of Colorado 
lands. Southern California has made a protest against 
my giving rights of way in the upper reaches of the Colorado 
for the diversion of water on to Colorado lands saying that 
Imperial Valley is entitled to the full normal flow of 
the Colorado. The group of men who hold land in Mexico 
south of the Imperial Valley make the same claim. Arizona 
wishes to have a large part of this water used on her soil, 
and the people of Colorado are divided as to whether the 
water should be carried over on to the eastern side of the 
Rockies or allowed to flow down in its natural channel on 
the western side. 

We have a similar trouble as to the Rio Grande, which 
rises in Colorado, where the Coloradans claim all the water 
can be used and can be put to the highest beneficial use. 
New Mexico, Texas, and Old Mexico all claim their right to 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 145 

the water for all kinds of purposes. If we recognize Colo- 
rado's full claim there is probably enough water in Colorado 
to irrigate all of her soil, but portions of Wyoming, Nebraska, 
Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah would 
remain desert. 

If you can tell me how to solve this problem so as to 
recognize the right that you claim Colorado has, and to 
maintain the rights that the Federal Government and the 
adjoining States have, I shall certainly be deeply grateful. 

With all good wishes for the New Year, believe me as 
always, affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, March 11, 1914 

My dear Mr. President. — I have your note of yesterday 
referring to me the correspondence between yourself and 
the Civil Service Commission on the question of the partic- 
ipation of women Civil Service employees in woman suf- 
frage organizations. I think perhaps I am a prejudiced 
partisan in this matter for I believe that the women should 
have the right to agitate for the suffrage. Furthermore, I 
think they are going to get the suffrage, and that it would 
be politically unwise for the administration to create the 
impression that it was attempting to block the movement. 
I should think it the part of wisdom for you personally to 
make the announcement that women Civil Service employ- 
ees will be protected in the right to join woman suffrage 
organizations and to participate in woman suffrage parades 
or meetings. This is practically what the Civil Service 
Commission says, but in a more careful, lawyer-like man- 
ner, whereas whatever is said should be said in a rather ro- 



146 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

bust, forthright style. The real thing that we are after in 
making regulations as to political activity is to keep those 
who are in the employ of the Government from using their 
positions to further their personal ends or to serve some 
political party. What they may do as individuals outside 
of the Government offices is none of our business, so long as 
they do nothing toward breaking it down as a merit serv- 
ice, do not discredit the service, or render themselves unfit 
for it. . . . 

The spoils system is a combination of gratitude and black- 
mail. The merit system is an attempt to secure efficiency 
without recognizing friendship or fear. We can safely allow 
the participation of merit system employees in an agitation 
so long as they do not go to the point where official advan- 
tage may be had through the agitation by securing a reward 
through party success. . . . 

I believe you might well make a statement of two or 
three hundred words in which you could state your decision 
with the philosophy that underlies it, in such a manner as to 
make the women understand that you are taking a liberal 
attitude and yet protecting the full spirit of the Civil Serv- 
ice idea. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

In March 1914, for the second time, Lane was invited to 
the University of California to receive a degree. This was 
an honor from his Alma Mater that he greatly desired. The 
previous year, the reorganization of his Department and 
the pressure of new work, had made it impossible for him 
to leave Washington. But this year he had promised 
to go. 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 147 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
President, University of California 

Washington, 13 [March, 1914] 
[The day I was to be with you.] 

My dear Doctor, — I was prepared to leave last Friday 
— tickets, reservations all secured. I had made a mighty 
effort. My conservation bills were not all out of Committee 
but I had arranged to get them out. The House was to 
caucus and the Senate to confer, and I had written pleading 
letters and made my prayers in person that my bills should 
be included in the program. On Thursday, the War De- 
partment refused the use of an engineer for the Alaskan 
railroad. In one day I drafted and secured the passage of 
a joint resolution giving me the man I wanted. The war 
scare had subsided and I had seen the Mediators who said 
that nothing would be doing for two weeks. So I went to 
the Cabinet meeting prepared to say goodbye. Then came 
a bomb — two European powers served notice that they 
would hold us responsible for what was likely to happen in 
Mexico City upon the incoming of Zapata and Villa, and 
wanted to know how prepared we were. We left the Cab- 
inet divided as to what should be done. A group of us met 
in the afternoon and decided to ask for another meeting. 
I carried the message. The reply was that the matter must 
be held over till the next meeting, and meanwhile we were 
asked to suggest a program. Then I sent my message to you. 
I have told this to no one but Anne. You deserve no less 
than the fullest statement from me. Please treat it as the 
most sacred of secrets. Always gratefully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The following letter, written about a year after Lane's 
entry into the Cabinet, shows what, in the course of a year, 



148 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

he had been able to accomplish in building the men of his 
heterogeneous department into a cooperative social unit 
by means of what he called his "Land Cabinet" and the 
Home Club. 



To Albert Shaw 
Review of Reviews 

Washington, April 8, 1914 

My dear Mr. Shaw, — Of course I saw the Review for 
April before your copies arrived, for somebody was good 
enough to tell me that there was a good word in it for me, 
and no matter how busy I am I always manage to read a 
boost. . . . 

You ask what I am doing to bring about team-work in 
the Department. Many things. As you probably don't 
know, this has been a rather disjointed Department. It 
was intended originally that it should be called the Home 
Department, and its Secretary the Secretary for Home Af- 
fairs. How we come to have some of the bureaus I don't 
know. Patents and Pensions, for instance, would not seem 
to have a very intimate connection with Indians and Irri- 
gation. Education and Public Lands, the hot springs of 
Arkansas, and the asylum for the insane for the District of 
Columbia do not appear to have any natural affiliation. 
The result has been that the bureaus have stood up as in- 
dependent entities, and I have sought to bring them together, 
centering in this office. 

One of the first things I did was to form what is called a 
Land Cabinet, made up of the Assistant Secretaries, the 
Commissioner of the Land Office, and the Director of the 
Geological Survey. We meet every Monday afternoon and 
go over our problems together. The Reclamation Commis- 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 149 

sion is another organization of a similar sort, and we have 
constant conferences between the heads of bureaus which 
have to do with different branches of Indian work, lands, 
irrigation, and pensions. 

Some time ago in order to develop greater good feeling 
between the heads of the bureaus we organized a noonday 
mess, at which all the chiefs of bureaus and most of their 
assistants take their luncheon. . . . 

But the largest work, I think, in the way of promoting the 
right kind of spirit within the Department was the organiza- 
tion of the Home Club. This is a purely social institution, 
which the members themselves maintain. We have now 
some seventeen hundred members, all pay the same ini- 
tiation fee and the same dues, and all meet upon a common 
ground in the club. Our club house is one of the finest old 
mansions in this city, formerly the residence of Schuyler 
Colfax. . . . It is a four-story building in LaFayette Square, 
within a half a block of the White House. This house we 
have furnished ourselves in very comfortable shape without 
the help of a dollar from the outside, and we maintain it 
upon dues of fifty cents a month. Each night during the 
week we have some form of entertainment in the club — 
moving pictures, or a lecture, or a dance, or a musicale. 

I organized this club for the purpose of showing to these 
people of moderate salaries what could be done by coopera- 
tion. It is managed entirely by the members of the Depart- 
ment. There is no caste line or snobbery in the institution, 
and for the first time the people in the different bureaus are 
becoming acquainted with each other, and enjoy the oppor- 
tunities of club life. The idea should be extended. We 
should have in the city of Washington a great service club, 
covering a block of land, containing fifteen or twenty thou- 
sand members, in which for a trifle per month we could get 



150 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

all of the advantages of the finest social and athletic club 
that New York contains. In the Home Club we have a 
billiard room, card rooms, a library, and a suite of rooms 
especially set aside for the ladies. We are fitting up one of 
the larger rooms as a gymnasium for the young men and 
boys, and expect to have bowling alleys, and possible tennis 
courts on a near-by lot. In this way I meet many of those 
who work with me, whom I never would see otherwise, and 
from the amount of work that the Department is doing, 
which is increasing, I am quite satisfied that it has helped 
to make the Department more efficient. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Charles K. Field 

Sunset Magazine 

Washington, April 18, 1914 

My dear Charles, — ... My picture on the cover of 
the May Sunset is altogether the best one I have had taken 
for some time, and the Democratic donkey is encourag- 
ingly fat. 

I wish in some way it were possible to impress upon our 
Western Senators and Congressmen the advisability of 
putting through the bills that I have before Congress in 
line with my report — a general leasing bill, under which 
coal, oil, and phosphate lands could be developed by lease, 
and a water power bill. As it is now, a man runs the risk 
of going to jail to get a piece of coal land that is big enough 
to work ; and the very bad situation in the oil field in Cali- 
fornia is entirely due to the inapplicability of our oil land 
laws. We have a couple of million acres of good phosphate 
lands withdrawn, totally undeveloped because no one can 
get hold of them, and no capital will go into our W T estern 
power sites because we can give at present only a revocable 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 151 

permit, whereas capital wants the certainty of a fixed 
term. 

I have tried to draft laws, copies of which I inclose, that 
are the best possible under the circumstances. I mean by 
that, that they are reasonable and will be passed by Con- 
gress if the West can only show a little interest in them, 
but so far the men who have been fighting them are Western- 
ers. Why ? For no better reason than that these gentle- 
men are in favor of having all of the public lands turned over 
to the states. It is useless to argue this question as to 
whether it is right or wrong, because Congress would never 
do it, so that opposition to these bills is simply opposition 
to further development of the West. 

Now if you can punch these people up a bit in some way 
and make them understand that the West should want to 
go ahead, rather than block development for all time, . . . 
you will be rendering a public service. 

With these few remarks I submit the matter to your 
prayerful consideration. As always, cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Frederic J. Lane 

Washington, April 27, 1914 

My dear Fritz, — I have just received your letter in re- 
lation to Stuart. I sent you a letter on Saturday saying 
that Daniels was going to recommend him. Of course, 
if he can't pass the physical examination that is the end of 
it, but I would let him try. . . . 

Ned is a great deal like Stuart — smart and lazy, but you 
know that all boys can't be expected to come up to the 
ideal conduct of their fathers at sixteen and eighteen. They 
go through life a damn sight more human. I don't see any 
reason whv a fellow should work if he can get along without 



152 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

it, and the trouble is that your boy is spoiled by you, and my 
boy is spoiled by his mother ! You have raised Stuart on 
the theory that he was a millionaire's son and, as such, he 
can't take life very seriously. 

I am figuring now on getting Ned off to some boarding- 
school where he will have more discipline than I can give 
him. The truth is that both of us, having had rather a 
prosaic Christian bringing up, have cultivated the idea in 
our youngsters that it is a good thing to be a sport, and the 
aforesaid youngsters are living up to it. If there was a 
school in the country where they taught boys the different 
kinds of trees, and the different rocks and flowers, birds, 
and fish, with some good sense, and American history, I 
would like to send Ned to it. . . . Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Edward E. Leake 
Treasury Department 
San Francisco, California 

Washington, May 26, 1914 

My dear Ed, — I have yours of the 21st. I know that 
you are sincere, old man, when you tempt me with the gov- 
ernorship, and you write in such a winning manner that my 
blood quickens, but really it is quite out of the question. 
I want to see California lined up strongly on the Democratic 
side. I also want to see Phelan come to the Senate and I 
am ready to do all that I can to help out the old State, but 
my work is cut out for me here and until I have put over 
some of the things that I believe will benefit the West as a 
whole, I do not believe I should relinquish the reins of this 
particular portfolio. It is an honor to me, a big one, to be 
considered by my friends for the governorship and I know 
that they would stand gallantly behind me, and when I 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 153 

send this negative answer, you must believe me when I say 
that I send it with considerable regret. 

I shall be very glad to see you at this end, when you are 
here, and you need no excuse to camp on my doorstep. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William R. Wheeler 

Washington, June 6, 1914 

My dear Bill, — I am extremely sorry to hear of your 
being robbed. That comes from being wealthy. Poor 
Lady Alice Isabel ! How outraged and disconsolate she 
must be ! If that diamond tiara I gave her is gone tell her 
I will replace it the first time I visit Tiffany's. Of course 
this only holds good as to the one I gave her. . . . You 
know, I have often wondered if a burglar should get into 
our house what he would find worth taking away. I have 
some small burglary insurance on my house, but this was so 
I could turn over and sleep without coming down stairs 
with a shotgun. What were you doing, going to Sacra- 
mento, anyway ? Any fellow who goes to Sacramento gets 
into trouble. That is the home of Diggs, Caminetti, and 
Hiram Johnson. I see that Johnson is going to be re-elected 
Governor, and that the other two are going to jail. I hope 
that all three will lead better lives in the future. 

Well, old man, if you need a new suit of clothes or any- 
thing in the line of underwear, let me know. I have gotten 
to the point where I have been wearing what Ned does not 
take, and I will pass some of them along to you. . . . 

There is nothing new here. I fear that I shall not get up 
to Alaska, as I promised myself, for Congress will be in 
session for some time, and I am striving desperately to get 
my conservation bills through. Moreover, just what phase 



154 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

the Mexican situation will take cannot be foreseen, from day 
to day. I was broken-hearted at not being able to get out 
to California, but just at that particular time — while I 
was about to go, tickets and everything purchased — the 
President called upon me to do something which held me 
back. The toll bills will probably pass next week, by a 
majority of nine. Then the trust bills will come up in the 
Senate and every man will have to make a speech. . . . 
Cordially yours, 

F. K. L. 

The next letter has been included because it shows Lane's 
direct and unequivocal method when defending a subordi- 
nate whom he thought unfairly criticized. He quoted, and 
in office practised, Roosevelt's maxim of giving a man his 
fullest support as long as he thought him worthy to be en- 
trusted with public business. The names are omitted here 
for obvious reasons. 

To 

Washington, June 10, 1914 

My Dear Billy, — I have your letter of June 9th, relating 
to summer residence homesteads, and referring sneeringly 
several times to Blank. I wonder if you realize that Blank 
is my appointee and my friend. [He] has done you no 
wrong, and he intends to do the public no wrong. He is as 
public-spirited as you are, but you differ with him as to 
certain phases of our land policy, though not so widely as 
you yourself think. Is that any reason why you should 
discredit him ? Is it not possible for men to differ with you 
on questions of public policy without being crooks? Your 
talk has started Chicago talking ; nothing definite, just 
whispers. Is this fair to Blank? Is it fair to me? . . . 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 155 

Is the test of a man's public usefulness decided by his views 
as to whether the desert lands should be leased or home- 
steaded ? 

I am saying this to you in the utmost friendliness, because 
I think that your attitude is not worthy of your own ideal of 
yourself, and it certainly does not comport with my ideal of 
you, which I very much wish to hold. Surely honest men 
may differ as to whether grazing lands should be leased, 
and if Blank is not honest then it is your duty to the public 
service and to me to show this fact. 

At the bottom of your letter you say, "This report will 
introduce you to Mr. Blank." Now it just so happens that 
that line should read ' This report will introduce you to 
Mr. Lane," for I am responsible for that report. It was not 
written until after he had consulted with me, and I dictated 
an outline of its terms. ... As always, cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To his Brother on his Birthday 

Washington, [August, 1914] 

. . . This is somewhere around your birthday time, 
isn't it? Well, if it is, you are about forty-nine years of 
age and I look upon you as the one real philosopher that I 
know. I'd trade all that I have by way of honors and office 
for the nobility and serenity of your character. You feel 
that you have not done enough for the world. So do we all. 
But you have done far more than most of us, for you have 
proved your own soul. You have made a soul. You have 
taught some of us what a real man may be in this devilish 
world of selfishness. What other man of your acquaintance 
has the affection of men who know him for the nobility of 
his nature? I don't know one. You know many who are 
lovable, like sympathetic like myself, brilliant, sweet- 



156 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

tempered, — lots of them. But who are the noble ones? 
Who look at all things asking only, "What is worthy?" 
And doing that thing only. You tell the world that you 
will not conform to all its littlenesses. That, I haven't at 
all the courage to do. You tell the world that you are not 
willing to feed your vanity with your everlasting soul. 
Where are the rest of us, judged by that test ? 

Ah, my dear boy, you have inspired many a fellow you 
don't know anything about, with a desire to emulate you, 
and always to emulate something that is genuine and big 
in you — not a trick of speech or a small quality of mind 
or manner. I envy you — and so do many. Nancy could 
tell you why you are worth while. She knows the genuine 
from the spurious. She knows the metal that rings true 
when tests come. 

So there, . . . put all this inside of your smooth noddle 
and take a drink to me — a drink of "cald, cald water." 

And I just want you to understand that I am in no self- 
deprecatory mood right now, for I am in my office at eight 
o'clock of a Saturday evening, working away with all my 
might on some damned land cases, having had a dinner at 
my desk, consisting of two shredded-wheat biscuits with 
milk, and one pear. Now you can realize what a virtuous, 
self-appreciative mood I am in. No man denies himself 
dinner for the sake of work without being really vain. 

And what is this I hear about your having neuritis and 
going to the hospital ? Damn these nerves, I say ! Damn 
them ! I have to swelter here because I can't let an electric 
fan play on my face, nor near me, without getting neuralgia. 
And swelter is the word, for it has been 104°-5°, with humid- 
ity, to boot, this week. 

Nerves — that means a wireless system, keen to perceive, 
to feel, to know the things hidden to the mass. I look for- 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 157 

ward to years of torture with the accursed things. The 
only thing that relieves, and of course it does not cure, is 
osteopathy, stimulating the nerve where it enters the spine. 
But never let them touch the sore place. That is fatal. It 
raises all the devils and they begin scraping on the strings 
at once. 

Well, by the time this reaches you I hope you will be quite 
a bit fitter. Avoid strain. Don't lift. Don't carry. If 
you stretch the infernal wires they curl up and squeal. 

May the God of Things as they Are be good to you. . . . 

Mother may know all about us. How I wish I could know 

that it was so. You have the philosophy that says — 

"Well, if it is best, she does." I wish I had it. My God, 

how I do cling to what scraps of faith I have and put them 

together to make a cap for my poor head. With all the 

love I have. 

Frank 

To Cordenio Severance 

Washington, September 24, 1914 

My dear Cordy, — I have just received your note. Why 
don't you come down here and spend three or four days 
resting up ? Nancy and Anne will be delighted to cart you 
around in the victoria and show you all the beautiful trees 
and a sunset or two, and we will give you some home cook- 
ing and put you on your feet, and then you will have an 
opportunity to beg forgiveness for not having gone up to 
Essex. I am mighty sorry that you have been ill. If we 
had had the faintest notion that you were, we would have 
stayed in New York to see you, but as it was we came down 
on the Albany boat and we went directly from the boat to 
the train. I think that we would have stopped over two 
or three hours and seen you anyway if it had not been for 



158 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

the presence of our dog, who was regarded by the women as 
the most important member of the family. 

Did you ever travel with a dog ? We came down through 
Lake George, and the Secretary of the Interior sat on a beer 
box in the prow of the steamship, surrounded by automobiles 
and kerosine oil cans and cooks and roustabouts, because 
they would not let a dog go on the salon deck. Only my 
sense of humor saved me from beating my wife and child, 
and throwing the dog overboard. On the train some mem- 
ber of the family had to stay with the dog and hold his paw 
while he was in the baggage car. The trouble with you and 
me is that we are not ugly enough to receive such attention. 
If we had undershot jaws and projecting teeth and no nose, 
we probably would be regarded with greater tenderness and 
attention. 

Ned is at Phillips-Exeter and is the most homesick kid 
you ever heard of. He writes two letters a day and has sent 
for his Bible, and tells us he is going to church. If that is 
no evidence, then I am no judge of a psychological state. 

Come on down. Faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, October 1, 1914 

Dear Mr. President, — Mother Jones called on me yes- 
terday and I had a very interesting and enjoyable chat with 
her. During our talk some reference was made to the ster- 
ling qualities of your Secretary of Labor, for whom she en- 
tertains the highest regard. She told me this little story 
about him : — 

One evening sometime ago, when there was a strike of 
some workmen in Secretary Wilson's town, she was in the 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 159 

Secretary's home waiting to see him. The Secretary was 
engaged in another room with representatives of those op- 
posed to the strikers, and she overheard their talk. One 
of the men said, "Mr. Wilson, you have a mortgage on this 
house, I believe." 

The reply was in the affirmative. 

"Then," said the speaker, "if you will see that this strike 
is called away from our neighborhood — we don't ask you 
to terminate it, but merely to see that the strikers leave our 
town — if you will do this, we will take pleasure in present- 
ing you with a large purse and also in wiping off the mort- 
gage on your home." 

Mr. Wilson arose, his voice trembling and his arm lifted, 
and said, "You gentlemen are in my house. If you come 
as friends and as gentlemen, all of the hospitalities that this 
home has to offer are yours. But if you come here to bribe 
me to break faith with my people, who trust me and whom 
I represent, there is the door, and I wish you to leave im- 
mediately." 

Mother Jones concluded by saying, "Mr. Wilson never 
tells this story, but I heard it with my own ears, and I know 
what a real man he is." 

I wish that you could have heard the story yourself. I 
am telling it to you now, for I know how pleased you will be 
to hear of it, even in this indirect way. Faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

On November 30, 1914 Colonel Roosevelt wrote to Lane 
saying, — 

"That's a mighty fine poem on Uncle Sam's Thanks- 
giving ! I wish you would give me a chance to see you 
sometime. 

"I do not know Mr. Garrison and perhaps he would resent 



160 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

my saying that I think he has managed his Department 
excellently; but if you think he would not resent it, pray 
tell him so. I hear nothing but good of you — but if I did 
hear anything else I should not pay any heed to it. . . ." 



To Theodore Roosevelt 

Washington, December 3, 1914 

My dear Colonel, — I have just received your note of 
November 30th, and I am very much gratified at your refer- 
ence to my Thanksgiving lines. You may be interested 
in knowing that the Home Club, before which I read these 
lines, is an institution that I organized since becoming Sec- 
retary, for the officers and employees of my Department. . . . 

You may rest assured that I shall convey your message 
to Mr. Garrison, and I know that he will be just as pleased 
to receive it as I am in being able to carry it. , 

. . . The work of the Department keeps me pretty 
closely to my desk, so that I have few opportunities of get- 
ting away from Washington. I certainly shall not let a 
chance of seeing you go by without taking advantage of it. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, January 9, 1915 

My dear Mr. President, — That was a bully speech, a 
corker ! You may have made a better speech in your life 
but I never have heard of it. Other Presidents may have 
made better speeches, but I have never heard of them. It 
was simply great because it was the proper blend of philos- 
ophy and practicality. It had punch in every paragraph. 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 161 

The country will respond to it splendidly. It was jubilant, 
did not contain a single minor note of apology and the 
country will visualize you at the head of the column. You 
know this country, and every country, wants a man to lead 
it of whom it is proud, not because of his talent but because 
of his personality, — that which is as indefinable as charm 
in a woman, and I want to see your personality known to 
the American people, just as well as we know it who sit 
around the Cabinet table. Your speech glows with it, and 
that is why it gives me such joy that I can't help writing 
you as enthusiastically as I do. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Lawrence F. Abbott 
, Outlook 

Washington, January 12, 1915 

My dear Mr. Abbott, — I enclose you two statements 
made with reference to our public lands water power bill 
and our western development bill. The power trust is fight- 
ing the power bill, although as amended by the Senate 
Committee it is especially liberal and fair and will bring 
millions of dollars into the West for development of water 
power. There seems to be no real opposition to the western 
development bill, generally called the leasing bill, excepting 
from those who believe that all of our public lands should 
be turned over to the States. 

These are non-partisan measures. They have been 
drafted in Consultation with Republicans and Progressives, 
as well as Democrats, and I regard them as the ultimate 
word of generosity on the part of the Federal Government, 
because all of the money produced is to go into western 
development. If these bills are killed, I fear that the West 
will never get another opportunity to have its withdrawn 



162 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

lands thrown open for development upon terms as satis- 
factory to it. 

It is easy to understand why men who already have great 
power plants on public land should be opposing such a bill 
as our power bill, and equally easy to understand why the 
coal monopolists should be fighting off all opportunity 
for any competitor to get into the field. The oil men are 
anxious for such legislation. Of course this legislation is 
not ideal, because it is the result of compromise between 
minds, as to methods. The power bill is vitally right in 
one thing ; that the rights granted revert at the end of 
fifty years to the Government, if the Government wishes to 
take the plant over. The development bill is right, be- 
cause it sets aside a group of archaic laws under which 
monopoly and litigation and illegal practices have thrived. 

Both of these bills have passed the House, and are before 
the Senate. I trust that the fixed determination of those 
who are hostile to them will not prevail. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

This letter, duplicated, was sent to several editors of 
magazines, to inform the public as to pending legislation. 



VII 
EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 

1914-1915 

Endorsement of Hoover — German Audacity — LL.D. from Alma 
Mater — England's Sea Policy — Christmas Letters 

To William Jennings Bryan 

Washington, November 17, 1914 

My dear Mr. Secretary, — If it is true that the State 
Department is not informed regarding Mr. Hoover and his 
entire responsibility, I can send to you to-day his attorney, 
Judge Curtis H. Lindley, of San Francisco, who stands at 
the head of our bar. 

I know of Mr. Hoover very well. He is probably the 
greatest mining engineer that the world holds to-day, and is 
yet a very young man. He is a graduate of Stanford Uni- 
versity. 

I suppose that you do not wish to make any statement 
regarding Mr. Hoover, but I should fancy that there is no 
objection to Mr. Fletcher making any statement that he 
desires. There are hundreds of thousands of people in 
the United States to-day who are anxious to know how the 
things that they are preparing for the different European 
countries, especially for the Belgians, can be sent to them. 
Some information along this line might be very helpful. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

163 



164 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To John Crawford Burns 

Rome, Italy 

Washington, January 22, 1915 

My dear John, — I have often thought of you during these 
last few months, and wished for a good long talk so some 
of the kinks in my own brain might be straightened out. 
It looks to me very much as if the war were a stalemate. 
Even if England throws another million men into the field 
in May I can't see how she can get through Belgium and 
over the Rhine. Germany is practically self-supported, 
excepting for gasoline and copper, and no doubt a consider- 
able amount of these are being smuggled in, one way or 
another. The Christians are having a hard time reconciling 
themselves to existing conditions. . . . England is making a 
fool of herself by antagonizing American opinion, insisting 
upon rights of search which she never has acknowledged as to 
herself. If she persists she will be successful in driving from 
her the opinion of this country, which is ninety per cent in 
her favor, although practically all of the German-Americans 
are loyal to their home country. We have some ambition 
to have a shipping of our own, and England's claim to own 
the seas, as Germany puts it, does not strike the American 
mind favorably. No doubt this will be regarded by you as 
quite an absurdity, that we should have any such dream, 
but I find myself from day to day feeling a twinge or two of 
bitterness over England's stubbornness, which seems to be 
as irremovable a quality as it was in some past days. . . . 

Your little Nancy is no longer little. She is up to my ear, 
has gone out to several evening parties, is at last going to 
school like other girls, keeps up her violin, and is very much 
of a joy. . . . 

I knew that you would like our Ambassador. Cultivate 
him every chance you get. Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 165 

On February 20, 1915, Lane went to San Francisco and 
formally opened the Panama Pacific Exposition, as the per- 
sonal representative of the President. He spoke on "That 
slender, dauntless, plodding, modest figure, the American 
pioneer, . . . whose long journey . . . beside the oxen is 
at an end." 



To Alexander Vogelsang 

En route, near Odgen, Utah, February 22, 1915 

My dear Aleck. — You are the best of good fellows, and 
I don't see any reason why I should not tell you so, and of 
my affection for you. Don't mind the slaps and raps that 
you get, regarding the high duty you perform. The people 
respect you as an entirely honest and efficient public servant. 
It did my heart good to hear the men I talked with speak so 
appreciatively of you. I enjoyed my two days with you 
as I have not enjoyed any two days for many years. The 
best thing in all this blooming world is the friendship that 
one fellow has for another. I would truly love to have the 
President know our Amaurot crowd, but I can't quite plan 
out a way by which it could be done. ... As always, 
affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John H. Wigmore 

En route to Chicago, February 25, 1915 

My dear John, — I have read your preface with great 
satisfaction. It will, no doubt, renew your self-confidence 
to know that it has my approval. You make some pro- 
found suggestions which would never in the world have 
occurred to me. The American believes that the doctrine 
of equality necessarily implies unlimited appeal. This is 



166 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

my psychological explanation for the unwillingness to give our 
judges more power. Another explanation is that the Amer- 
ican people are governed by sets of words, one formula being 
that this is a government by law, hence the judge must 
have no discretion and rules must be arbitrary and fixed. 

I had a roaring good time in San Francisco. Spoke to 
fifty thousand people, and more, who could not hear me. 
Made a rotten speech and met those I loved best, so I am 
not altogether displeased with having taken the trip after all. 

Hope your arm is doing finely. Give my love to your 
dear wife. Affectionately yours, 

F. K. L. 

To John Crawford Burns 
Rome, Italy 

Washington, March 3, 1915 

My dear John, — All things are so large these days that 
I can not compress them within the confines of a letter. I 
mean, don't you know, that there is no small talk. We are 
dealing with life and death propositions, life or death to 
somebody all the time. 

I suppose if you were a few years younger you would be 
over in the trenches, or up in England getting ready. From 
all we hear, the Scotchmen are the only fellows that the 
Germans really are afraid of or entirely respect. The posi- 
tion of a neutral is a hard one. We are being generously 
damned by the Germans and the aggressive Irish for being 
pro-British, and the English press people and sympathizers 
in this country are generously damning us as the grossest of 
commercialists who are willing to sell them into the eternal 
slavery of Germany for the sake of selling a few bushels of 
wheat. Neither side being pleased, the inference is reason- 
able that we are being loyal to our central position. . . . 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 167 

I went out recently and opened the San Francisco Fair, 
parading at the head of a procession of a hundred thousand 
people. The Fair is truly most exquisitely beautiful. 
There are many buildings that would even, no doubt, please 
your most fastidious eye. 

We have tried to get a Shipping Bill through which would 
allow us to get into South American and other trade, but 
the Republicans have blocked us, not because they feared we 
would get mixed up with the war but because they don't 
want us to do a thing that would further Government owner- 
ship of anything. 

The Administration is weak, east of the Alleghanies ; and 
strong, west of the Alleghanies. Bryan is a very much larger 
man and more competent than the papers credit him with 
being. The President is growing daily in the admiration of 
the people. He has little of the quality that develops affec- 
tion, but this, I think, comes from his long life of isolation. 

We regard ourselves as very lucky in the men we have 
in the foreign posts, notwithstanding the attacks made upon 
us by your press. . . . 

I wish you would convey my hearty respects to His Excel- 
lency, the Ambassador, and to your wife, of whose return 
to health I am delighted to hear. Cordially yours, 

Lane 

To Edward J. Wheeler 
Current Opinion 

Washington, March 4, 1915 

Dear Mr. Wheeler, — I am extremely obliged to you for 
your appreciative letter regarding my speech, 1 but don't 
publish it in the Poetry Department or you will absolutely 
ruin my reputation as a hard working official. No man 

1 On the American Pioneer. 



168 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

in American politics can survive the reputation of being a 
poet. It is as bad as having a fine tenor voice, or knowing 
the difference between a Murillo and a Turner. The only 
reason I am forgiven for being occasionally flowery of speech 
is that I have been put down as having been one of those 
literary fellows in the past. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John Crawford Burns 
Rome, Italy 

Washington, March 13, 1915 
My dear John, — I have received three letters from you 
within the last two weeks, greatly to my joy. Your first 
and longest letter, but not a word too long, I thought so 
very good that I had it duplicated on the typewriter and 
sent a copy to each member of the Cabinet, excepting Bryan, 
whom you refer to in not too complimentary a manner. On 
the same day that I received this letter I received one from 
Pfeiffer, presenting the American merchants' point of view, 
who desire to get goods from Germany, a copy of which I 
inclose. So I put your letter and his together, and told 
them all who you both are. Thus, old man, you have be- 
come a factor in the determination of international policy. 
Several members of the Cabinet have spoken with the 
warmest admiration of your letter, one scurrilous indi- 
vidual remarking that he was astonished to learn that I had 
such a learned literary gent as an intimate friend. 

We are just at present amused over the coming into port 
of the German converted cruiser Eiiel, with the captain and 
the crew of the American bark, William P. Frye, on board. 
The calm gall of the thing really appeals to the American 
sense of humor. Here is a German captain, who captured 
a becalmed sailing ship, loaded with wheat, and blows her 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 169 

up; sails through fifteen thousand miles of sea, in danger 
every day of being sunk by an English cruiser, and then 
calmly comes in to an American port for coal and repairs. 
The cheek of the thing is so monumental as to fairly cap- 
tivate the American mind. What we shall do with him, of 
course, is a very considerable question. He can not be 
treated as a pirate, I suppose, because there can not be 
such a thing as a pirate ship commanded by an officer of 
a foreign navy and flying a foreign flag. But he plainly pur- 
sued the policy of a pirate, and I am expecting any day to 
find Germany apologizing and offering amends. But there 
may be some audacious logic by which Germany can justify 
such conduct. Talking of Belgium, I was referred the 
other day to the report of the debates in the House of Com- 
mons found in the 10th volume of Cobbett's Parliamentary 
Reports, touching the attack on Copenhagen by England 
in 1808, in which the Ministry justified its ruthless attack 
upon a neutral power in almost precisely the same language 
that Von Bcthmann Hollweg used in justifying the attack on 
Belgium, and Lord Ponsonby used the sort of reasoning 
then, in answer to the Government, that England is now 
using in answer to Germany. I was distrustful of the 
quotations that were given to me and looked the volume 
up, and found that England was governed by much the same 
idea that Germany was — just sheer necessity. Of course, 
your answer is that we have traveled a long way since 1808. 
Doesn't it look to you an impossible task for England and 
France to get beyond the Rhine, or even get there? Eng- 
land, of course, has hardly tried her hand in the game yet 
and if the Turk is cleaned up she will have a lot of Austra- 
lians and others to help out in Belgium. Sir George Paish 
told me they expect to have a million and a half men in the 
field by the end of this summer. 



170 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Pfeiffer comes here to-day to spend a couple of days trying 
to do something for the State Department; I don't know 
just what, but I shall be mighty glad to see the old chap. 
I haven't seen anything of Lamb since his return. 

Do write me again. Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

On the sixteenth of March Lane again started for San 
Francisco, crossing the continent for the third time within 
a month. Vice-President Marshall, Adolph C. Miller, 
now of the Federal Reserve Board, and Franklin D. Roose- 
velt, assistant Secretary of the Navy, who were going out 
to visit officially the Exposition, were the principal members 
of the party. In Berkeley, on March twenty-third, 1915, 
Lane received his degree from the University of California. 
In conferring this degree President Wheeler said : — 

"Franklin K. Lane, — Your Alma Mater gladly writes 
to-day your name upon her list of honour, — in recognition 
not so much of your brilliant and unsparing service to state 
and nation, as of your sympathetic insight into the insti- 
tutions of popular government as the people intended them. 
An instinctive faith in the righteous intentions of the average 
man has endowed you with a singular power to discern the 
best intent of the public will. Men follow gladly in your 
lead, and are not deceived. 

"By direction of the Regents of the University of Cali- 
fornia I confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws : — 

"Creative statesman in a democracy; big-hearted 
American." 

On December 7, 1915, upon receiving a copy of the diploma 
Lane wrote in acknowledgement to Dr. Wheeler, — "I 
have the diploma which it has taken all the talent of the 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 171 

office to translate. I had one man from Columbia, another 
from the University of Virginia, one from Nebraska, and 
one at large at work on it. Thank you. It takes the place 
of honor over my mantel." 



To William P. Lawlor 
-Justice, Supreme Court of California 

Washington, April 13, 1915 

My dear Judge, — I have read Eddy O'Day's poem with 
great delight. Along toward the end it carries a sentiment 
that our dear old friend John Boyle O'Reilly expressed in 
his poem Bohemia, in which he speaks of those, 

" Who deal out a charity, scrimped and iced, 
In the name of a cautious, statistical Christ." 

I have never been able to write a line of verse myself, 
although I have tried once in a while, but long ago my in- 
capacity was proved. Pegasus always bucks me off. 

I am sorry you took so seriously what I had to say of the 
wedding invitation, but you know I am one of those very 
sentimental chaps, who loves hi« friends with a great devo- 
tion, and when anything good comes to them I want to know 
of it first, and no better fortune can come to any man than 
to marry a devoted, high-minded woman. 

Your rise has been a joy to me, because neither you nor 
I came to the bar nor to our positions by conventional 
methods. The union spirit is very strong among lawyers, 
and if a man has ideas outside of law, or wishes to humanize 
the law, he is regarded with suspicion by his fellows at the 
bar. You have proved yourself and arrived against great 
odds. No man that I know has ever had such a testimonial 
of public confidence as you received in the last election. 
I hope that with the hard work much joy will come to you. 



172 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Mrs. Lane has just dropped in and wishes me to send 
you her warm regards. Always sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William G. McAdoo 
Secretary of the Treasury 

Washington, April 27, 1915 

My dear Mac, — Here is a man for us to get next to. He 
is a Harriman, a Morgan, a Huntington, a Hill, a Bismarck, 
a Kuhn Loeb, and a damn Yankee all rolled into one ! Can 
you beat it? His daughter also looks like a peach. I do 
not know the purpose of this financial congress in which these 
geniuses from the hot belt are to gather; but unless I am 
mistaken you are looking around for some convenient re- 
treat to go to when this Riggs litigation is over and you are 
turned out scalpless upon a cruel world. Here is your 
chance ! Tie up with Pearson. He has banks, railroads, 
cows, horses, mules, land, girls, alfalfa, clubs, and is con- 
nected with every distinguished family in North and South 
America. 

This man, Dr. Hoover, is a genius. When I knew him he 
was giving lessons in physical training ; but, now, like my- 
self, he is an LL.D., and, of course, as a fellow LL.D. 
I have got to treat his friend properly. So I pass him along 
to you. Please see that he has the front bench and is called 
upon to open the congress with prayer, which, being a 
Yankee and a pirate, he undoubtedly can do in fine fashion. 

When he comes, if you will let me know, I shall go out 
to meet him in my private yacht ; take him for a drive in 
my tally-ho ; give him a dinner at Child's, and take him 
to the movies at the Home Club. 

I shall also ask Redfield to invite him to the much-heralded 
shad luncheon, to which I have received the fourth invitation. 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 173 

Do you think he would like to meet my friend, Jess Willard ? 
Cordially yours, 

Fraistklin K. Lane 



A letter from John Burns, from Rome, spoke sarcastically 
of the American attitude of neutrality toward the European 
war, and of what he called the "new American motto — 
'Trust the President.'" 



To John Crawford Burns 

Rome, Italy 

Washington, May 29, 1915 

My dear John, — I saw Pfeiffer, Lamb, and Mezes the 
other day up in New York. Mezes lives among Hebrews, 
Lamb is broken-hearted that he can not get into the war, 
and Pfeiffer is trying to get England to let his German goods 
through Holland. Lamb and Pfeiffer do not agree as to 
England's duty to allow non-contraband on neutral ships 
to pass unmolested. 

England is playing a rather high game, violating inter- 
national law every day. . . . England's attempt to starve 
Germany has been a fizzle. Germany will be better off 
this summer than she was two years ago, have more food 
on hand. There are no more men in Germany outside of 
the Army. Practically every one has been called out who 
could carry a gun, but the women are running the mills and 
the prisoners are tilling the farms. Von Hindenburg will 
come down upon Italy, when he has lured the Italians up 
into some pass and given them a sample of what the Russians 
got in East Prussia. 

You see I am in quite a prophetic mood this afternoon. 

Tell me if you understand Italy's position — just how 



174 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

she justifies herself in entering the war? I have seen no 
authoritative justification that I thought would hold water. 
The Coalition ministry in England is weaker than the 
Liberal ministry. Lord Northcliffe, who is the Hearst of 
England, has become its boss. Inasmuch as you object 
to our new motto, "Trust the President," I offer as a sub- 
stitute, "Trust Lord Northcliffe, Bonar Law, and the Philos- 
opher of Negation." The dear bishops won't give up their 
toddy, so England must go without ammunition. Germany 
is standing off Belgium, England and France, with her right 
hand ; Russia with her left, and is about to step on Italy. 
Germany has not yet answered our protest in the Lusitania 
matter. Neither has England answered our protest, sent 
some three months ago, against the invasion of our rights 
upon the seas. I was very glad to read the other day that 
while only eighty per cent of English-made shells explode, 
over ninety per cent of American-made shells explode. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To E. W. Scripps 
Scripps McRae Syndicate 

Washington, June 1, 1915 

My dear Mr. Scripps, — I am extremely glad to get your 
letter — and such a hearty, noble-spirited letter. It came 
this morning, and was so extraordinary in its patriotic spirit 
that I took it to the White House and left it with the Pres- 
ident. 

I am sure that great good will come of the effort you are 
making to gather the people in support of the President. 
The poor man has been so worried by the great responsi- 
bilities put upon him that he has not had time to think or 
deal with matters of internal concern. . . . He is extremely 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 175 

appreciative of the spirit you have shown. I have a large 
number of matters in my own Department — Alaskan rail- 
road affairs and proposed legislation — that I ought to take 
up with him ; but I can not worry him with them while 
international concerns are so pressing. 

I feel that at last the country has come to a consciousness 
of the President's magnitude. They see him as we do who 
are in close touch with him. . . . My own ability to help him 
is very limited, for he is one of those men made by nature 
to tread the wine-press alone. The opportunity comes now 
and then to give a suggestion or to utter a word of warning, 
but on the whole I feel that he probably is less dependent 
upon others than any President of our time. He is conscious 
of public sentiment — surprisingly so — for a man who sees 
comparatively few people, and yet he never takes public sen- 
timent as offering a solution for a difficulty ; if he can think 
the thing through and arrive at the point where public senti- 
ment supports him, so much the better. He will loom very 
large in the historian's mind two or three decades from now. 

In the fall I am going to ask you to lend a hand in support 
of my conservation bills, which look like piffling affairs now 
in contrast with the big events of the day. 

Once more I thank you heartily for your letter. Cordially 

yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Wickersham 

Washington, July 18, 1915 

My dear and distinguished Sir, — I once knew a vain- 
glorious chap who wrote a poem on the Crucifixion of Christ. 
The refrain was, — 

" Had I been there with three score men, 
Christ Jesus had not died." 



176 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

All of us feel "that-a-way" once in a while when we think 
of Germany, Mexico, and sich. I shall have a few words 
to say upon the German note next Tuesday. 1 They will 
be short and somewhat ugly Anglo-Saxon words, utterly 
undiplomatic, and I hope that some of them will be used. 

There is no man who has a greater capacity for indignation 
than the gentleman who has to write that note, and no man 
who has a sincerer feeling of dignity, and no man who dis- 
likes more to have a damned army officer, filled with strut- 
titudinousness, spit upon the American Flag — a damned 
goose-stepping army officer ! 

This morning comes word that they tried to torpedo the 
Orduna, but failed by a hair. This does not look like a 
reversal of policy. Of course those chaps think we are 
bluffing because we have been too polite. We have talked 
Princetonian English to a water-front bully. I did not 
believe for one moment that our friends, the Germans, were 
so unable to see any other standpoint than their own. 

I saw ex-secretary Nagle here the other day. We were 
at the same table for lunch at the Cosmos Club. One of 
the men at the table said, "I think Lane ought to have been 
appointed Secretary of State." Nagle's usual diplomacy 
deserted him, and with a face evidencing a heated mind 
replied, "Oh, my God, that would never do, never do ; born 
in Canada." So you see I am cut out from all these great 
honors. Is this visiting the sins of the fathers upon the 
children ? 

I wish you joy in your work and I wish I could lay some 
of my troubles on your shoulders. Mrs. Lane and I are 
going up to see you just as soon as we get the chance. I had 
to decline to address the American Bar Association because 
I did not want to be away from here for a week. This is 

1 Day of Cabinet meeting. 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 177 

Sunday, and I am trying to catch up some of my personal 
mail which has been neglected for six weeks. Thus you may 
know that I am in the Government Service. 

I send you by this mail a copy of my speech in San Fran- 
cisco, which has been gotten up to suit the artistic taste of 
my private secretary. As always, 

Franklin K. Lane 



To Frederic J. Lane 

Washington, July 21, 1915 

My dear Fritz, — I wish I could think of something I could 
do for you dear people back there. I haven't heard from 
George for a long while, but I hope he is getting something 
in mind that makes him think life worth living. It is 
strange that every lawyer I know would like to be situated 
just as George is, with a little farm in a quiet dell. Last 
night I talked with Senator Southerland. It is his hope 
sometime to reach this ideal. And the other night I talked 
with Justice Lamar, and told him of George's life, and he 
said that he had dreamt of such an existence for fifty years 
but has never been able to see his way to its realization. 

There is no chance of our getting out to the Coast this 
year. The President expects us to be within call, and I 
am very much interested in the Mexican question, as to 
which I have presented a program to him which so far he 
has accepted. These are times of terrible strain upon him. 
I saw him last night for a couple of hours, and the respon- 
sibility of the situation weighs terribly upon him. How 
to keep us out of war and at the same time maintain our 
dignity — this is a task certainly large enough for the 
largest of men. 

Conditions politically are very unsettled, and much will 
turn I suppose on what Congress does. More and more 



178 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I am getting to believe that it would be a good thing to have 
universal military service. To have a boy of eighteen given 
a couple of months for two or three years in the open would 
be a good thing for him and would develop a very strong 
national sense, which we much lack. The country believes 
that a man must be paid for doing anything for his country. 
We even propose to pay men for the time they put in drilling, 
so as to protect their own liberties and property. This 
is absurd! We must all learn that sacrifices are necessary 
if we are to have a country. The theory of the American 
people, apparently, is that the country is to give, give, give, 
and buy everything that it gets. 

Hope things are going well with you. Drop me a line 
when you can. Affectionately, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John Crawford Burns 
Rome, Italy 

Washington, July 30, 1915 

My dear John, — Things have come to such a tension here 
that I doubt the wisdom of my discussing international 
politics with you ; nevertheless, I want you not to be weary 
in well-doing, but continue to give me the views of the Tory 
Squire. I hope that your admiration for Balfour will prove 
justified. Of course, our press, which can not be said to 
sympathize strongly with the conservative side, makes it 
appear that Lloyd George is now bearing a great part in 
the work of securing ammunition. This is the inevitable 
result of allowing the people to vote. The man who has the 
people's confidence proves to be the most useful in a time of 
emergency. However, it may be that Balfour is himself 
directing all that Lloyd George does. 

This morning's papers contain an official statement from 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 179 

Petrograd suggesting that the English get to work upon the 
west line. This seems to me extremely unkind, inasmuch 
as the English have already lost over 300,000 and have fur- 
nished a large amount of money to Russia, I understand. 

Pfeiffer sent me an article the other day from a German 
professor, in which he said that the three million men that 
Kitchener talked about was all a bluff. Pfeiffer keeps 
sending me long protests against England's attitude re- 
garding our trade, which seem to me to be fair statements 
of international law. 

The word that I get rather leads me to believe that the 
war will last for at least another year and a half, which is 
quite in line with Kitchener's prophecy, but where will all 
these countries be from a financial standpoint at the end of 
that time ? I fancy some of them will have to go into bank- 
ruptcy and actually repudiate their debt, and what will 
become by that time of the high-spirited French, who are 
holding three hundred and fifty miles of line against eleven 
held by the British and thirty by the Belgians ? 

Yesterday I received a request from a German Inde- 
pendence League for my resignation, as I was born under 
the British flag and was supposed to be influential with 
the President, who has recently sent a very direct and 
business-like letter to Germany. My answer was that they 
had mistaken my nationality. My real name was Lange 
and my father had stricken out the G. ! Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Eugene A. Avery 

Washington, August 2, 1915 

My dear Avery, — I am very glad to hear from you and 
to get your verse. I had a glorious time at Berkeley. I 
could have received no honor that would have given me 



180 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

greater satisfaction, but oh ! as I look over that old list of 
professors and associate professors ! I don't know a tenth 
of them, and I never heard of half of them. How far I am 
removed from the scholastic life, and how far we both are from 
those old days when you used to sit with your pipe in your 
mouth, in front of your cabin, and discourse to me upon 
God and men ! 

Well, we don't any of us know any more about God, but 
we know something more about man. But after all is said 
and done, I guess I like him about as much as I did in the 
enthusiastic days when we used to quiz old Moses. The 
streak of ideality that I had then I still retain. The reason 
that I have remained a Democrat is because I felt that we 
gave prime concern to the interests of men, as such, and had 
more faith that we could help on a revolution. 

These are times of trial. The well we look into is very 
deep. The stars are not very bright. It is hard to find 
our way, but the pilot has a good nerve. I know the trouble 
that Ulysses had with Scylla and Charybdis. 

Thank you, old man, very heartily for your word of cheer. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John F. Davis 

Washington, August 2, 1915 

My dear John, — I am very glad to get your letter of 
July 28, telling me your views regarding the last note. I 
believe the paragraph to which you refer was absolutely 
essential to make Germany understand that we meant busi- 
ness; that she could not have taken our opposition 
seriously is evidenced by her previous note, and which, I 
think, was as insulting as any note ever addressed by one 
power to another. Think of the absurd proposition, that 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 181 

we should be allowed a certain number of ships to be pre- 
scribed by Germany upon which our people could sail ! Of 
course, if we accepted her conditions, we would have to 
accept the conditions that any other belligerent, or neutral, 
for that matter, might impose. What becomes of a neutral's 
rights under these conditions ? 

The Leenalaw case shows that Germany can do exactly 
what we have been asking her to do; namely, give people 
a chance to get off the ship before they blow her up. This 
is good sense and good morals ; and the whole neutral world 
is behind us. If, in response to our note, Germany had 
said, "We regret the destruction of American lives, and are 
willing to make reparation, and have directed our submarines 
that they shall not torpedo any ships until the ship has been 
given an opportunity to halt," there would have been no 
trouble ; but Germany evidently did not take us seriously. 
Our English was a bit too diplomatic. 

I am writing you thus frankly, and in confidence, of 
course, because I respect your opinion greatly. Cordially 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

In the middle of August, Lane joined his family at Essex-on- 
Champlain, New York, for a few days. While there he 
went with Mr. and Mrs. James S. Harlan to Westport, some 
miles further south on the lake, to see the summer boat races 
and water sports. Mr. Harlan's motor-boat, the Gladwater, 
which had been built on his dock by Dick Mead, won the 
race, and that evening on their return Lane gave the fol- 
lowing letter to the successful builder : — 



182 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

August 21, 1915 
To "Dick" Mead on winning the race at Westport in 
the Gladwater. 

We wonder sometimes why man was made, so full is life 
of things that terrorize, that sadden and embitter. This 
life is a sea ; tranquil sometimes but so often fierce and cruel. 
And you and I are conscript sailors. Whether we will or 
no we must sail the sea of life, and in a ship that each must 
build for himself. To each is given iron and unhewn timber, 
to some more and to some less, with which to fashion his 
craft. Then the race really starts. 

Some of us build ships that are no more than rafts, form- 
less, lazy things that float. Fair weather things for moon- 
light nights. But others, high-hearted men of vision, will 
not be satisfied to drift with the current or accept the easy 
way. They know that they can do better than drift, and 
they must ! The timber and the iron become plastic under 
their touch. The dreams of the long night they test in the 
too-short day. They make and they unmake; they drop 
their tools perhaps for a time and drift ; they despair and 
curse their impatient and unsatisfied souls. But rising, they 
set to work again, and one day comes the reward, the planks 
fit together, and feeling the purpose of the builder, clasp each 
other in firm and beautiful lines ; the unwilling metal at 
last melts into form and place and becomes the harmonious 
heart of the whole — and so a ship is born that masters the 
cruel sea, that cuts the fierce waves with a knife of courage. 

To dream and model, to join and file, to melt and carve, to 
balance and adjust, to test and to toil — these are the 
making of the ship. And to a few like yourself comes the 
vision of the true line and the glory of the victory. Sin- 
cerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 183 

To John Crawford Burns 
Rome, Italy 

Washington, August 31, 1915 

My dear John, — ... I met three friends of yours in 
New York the other day, Lamb, Fletcher, and Pfeiffer, to 
whom I told in my dismal way, the correspondence that we 
have been carrying on, and all sympathized with me very 
sincerely. 

Things look brighter now. The President seems to have 
been able to make Germany hear him at last. I am very 
much surprised that you think we ought to enter the war. 
Now that you have secured Italy to intervene, what is the 
necessity ? What have you to offer by way of a bribe ? 
I see that you are distributing territory generously. Or do 
you think that we should go in because we were threatened 
as England was — although she says it was Belgium that 
brought her in ? Fletcher is very much for fighting ; Lamb 
says that the Allies will win in the next two weeks. Pfeiffer 
thinks that nobody will win. I can't tell you what I think. 
If I were only nearer I would have more fun with you. 
Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Sidney E. Mezes 
President of the College of the City of Neio York 

Washington, September 7, 1915 

My dear Sid, — I enclose a more formal letter for presenta- 
tion to your friend, Baron de . Why in hell you should 

plague me with this thing, except that I am the only real 
good-natured man connected with the Government, I don't 
understand. Speaking of good nature reminds me that 
you are a clam ; in fact, a clam is vociferous alongside of 
you. 



184 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

As you know I have been guiding the affairs of this 
Government for the past three months, and have received 
advice from every man, woman, and child in the country, 
including the German-American Union, the Independent 
Union, the Friends of Peace, the Sons of Hibernia, and all 
the other troglodytes that live ; and yet, you alone have not 
thought me of sufficient consequence to advise me as to 
what to do with the Kaiser or Carranza or Hoke Smith or 
Roosevelt. 

Before you go back to work why don't you come down 
here and spend a day or two ? We can have a perfectly 
bully time, and I will tell you how to run your University 
and you can tell me how to run the Government. . . . 

I have not seen House nor heard from him, though I have 
wanted to talk with him more than with any other human 
being, these three months gone. Yours as always, 

F. K. L. 

To Cordenio Severance 

Washington, September 13, 1915 

My dear Cordy, — I envy you very much the opportunity 
that you have to entertain Miss Nancy Lane. 1 When she 
is herself, she is a most charming young lady. She has 
powers of fascination excelled by few. If she grows angry, 
owing to her artistic temperament, and throws plates at 
you or chases you out of the house with a broom, you must 
forgive her because you know that great artists like Sarah 
Bernhardt often have this failing. 

Perhaps you do not know it, but she used to be a great 
violinist in her younger days. I doubt if she knows one 
string from another now. The only strings that she can 
play on are your heart strings, or mine, or any other man's 

1 Born January 4, 1903. 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 185 

that comes into her neighborhood. I shall rely upon your 
honor not to propose to her, because she is already engaged 
to me; in fact, we have been engaged nearly twelve years, 
and if she should become engaged to you, I will sue you for 
stealing her affections and will engage the firm of Davis 
Kellogg and Severance to prosecute my suit. If she says 
anything about a desire to get back to school, you can put 
it down as a bluff, and I trust that you will not swamp her 
with attentions and with company lest it should turn her 
head. She is accustomed to the simple life — a breakfast 
of oatmeal porridge, a luncheon of boiled macaroni, and a 
dinner of hash — these are the three things that she is used 
to. If she shows any disposition to be affectionate toward 
you or Aunt Maidie, I trust that you will repress her with an 
iron hand. The young women of this day, as you know, are 
very forward, and these new dances seem to be especially 
designed to destroy maiden modesty. 

. . . You may tell her that her brother seems to be very 
anxious to hear from her, being solicitous two or three times 
a day as to the mail. I judge from this that he is expecting 
a letter from her — or someone else. 

You are very good to be giving my little one such a fine 
time. My love to Maidie. Cordially yours, 

F. K. L. 

To Frederick Dixon 

Christian Science Monitor 

Washington, October 7, 1915 

Dear Mr. Dixon, — I have your letter of October 1st. 
You have asked me a very difficult question, which is really 
this : — How to get into a man's nature an appreciation of our 
form of government and its benefits ? 

I cannot answer this question. There are certain natures 



186 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

which do not sympathize with the exercise of or the develop- 
ment of common authority, which is the essence of De- 
mocracy. They are instinctively monarchists. They love 
order more than liberty. They do not see how a balance 
can be struck between the two. By force of environment 
and education their sons may see otherwise. I know of 
no other way of making Americans, than by getting into 
them by enviroment and education a love for liberty and 
a recognition of its advantages. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Robert H. Patchin 

Washington, November 27, 1915 

My dear Patchin, — Mrs. Lane and I would be delighted 
to join in your fiesta to Mrs. Eleanor Egan, but we just 
can't. Why? Because we have a dinner on December 
2nd, also because we are neutral. . . . 

We can not countenance any one who has been in jail. 
To have been in jail proves poverty. Nor do we regard it as 
fitting that a young woman should have been torpedoed 
and spent forty-five minutes in the water splashing around 
like Mrs. Leeks or Mrs. Aleshine. If she was torpedoed 
why didn't she go down or up like a heroine? Then she 
would have had an atrocious iron statue erected in her honor 
among the other horrors in Central Park. After her experi- 
ence she will doubtless be more sympathetic toward those 
of us who are torpedoed daily and weekly and monthly and 
have to splash around for the amusement of a curious 
public. 

I hope your dinner of welcome and rejoicing will be as 

gay as the cherubic smile of the Right Honorable Egan. 

Cordially, 

Franklin K. Lane 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 187 

To Francis R. Wall 

Washington, November 27, 1915 
My dear Wall, — I wish that I had time for a long letter 
to you, such as yours to me. But I am only to-day able to 
get at my personal correspondence which has accumulated 
in the last six weeks. These have been times of annual 
reports and estimates, and we have a large number of 
internal troubles which need constant attention. 

I am afraid that we are going to have a great deal of 
trouble in getting our preparedness program through, be- 
cause of dissension in our own ranks and because the Repub- 
licans are so anxious to take advantage of this emergency 
to raise the tariff duties and to gain credit for whatever is 
done in the way of preparation. We are too much dom- 
inated by partisanship to be really patriotic. This is a 
very broad indictment, but it seems to be justified. Of 
course, the people like Bryan and Ford, and the women 
generally, are moved by a philosophy that is too idealistic, 
and some of them are only moved, I fear, by an intense ex- 
aggerated ego. If I would have to name the one curse of 
the present day, I would say it is the love of notoriety and 
the assumption by almost everyone that his judgment is 
as good as that of the ablest. Of course, the trouble with 
the ablest people is that they are so largely moved by forces 
that do not appear on the surface, that one does not know 
that the views they express are really their own judgment. 
Democracy seems to be government by suspicion, in large 
part. We have faith in ourselves, but not in each other. 
A man to be a good partisan seems called upon to believe 
that every man of different view is a crook or a weakling. 
This is the Roosevelt idea. And half of it is the Bryan idea. 

I wish that I could see you, old man, and have one of 
our old time talks. . . . 



188 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I shall bear in mind what you say as to the availability of 
your service, but I hope it may not be necessary to take you 
from that land of sunshine and dreams that seems so remote 
from this center of intrigue and trouble. Affectionately yours , 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John II. Wigmore 

Washington, December 8, 1915 

My dear John, — ... Things are not looking at all nice 
as to Germany and Austria. I know that the country is 
not satisfied, at least part of it, with our patience, but I 
don't see just what else we can do but be patient. Our ships 
are not needed anywhere, and our soldiers do not exist. 
To-day brings word of the blowing up of an American ship. 
Of course, we do not know the details but the thing looks ugly. 
Wasn't the President's message on the hyphenated gentle- 
men bully ? You could not have beaten that yourself. And 
your dear friend T. Roosevelt, did certainly write himself 
down as one large and glorious ass in his criticism of the 
message. He hates Wilson so, that he has just lost his mind. 
I wish I didn't have to say this about Roosevelt, because 
I am extremely fond of him (which you are not), but 
a poorer interview on the message could not have been 

written. ... As always yours, 

F. K. L. 

The following letter was written to Mrs. Adolph Miller 
when she was in a hospital in New York. 

To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller 

Washington, December 12, [1915] 

My dear Mary, — We have just returned from Church and 
all morning I have been thinking of you and Adolph — 
praying for you I suppose in my Pagan way. - 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 189 

Poor dear girl, I know you are brave but I'd just like to hold 
your hand or look steadily into your eyes, to tell you that 
you have the best thing that this world gives — friends 
who are one with you. I can see old Adolph with his grim- 
ness and his great love, which makes him more grim and 
far more mandatory, what a sturdy old Dutch Calvinist he 
is ! He really is more Dutch than German — Dutch modi- 
fied by the California sun — and Calvinist sweetened by 
you and Boulder Creek, and Berkeley and William James 
and B. I. Wheeler and his Saint of a Mother. Well, let 
him pass, why should I talk of him when you really want 
me to talk of myself ! 

Last night we had the Gridiron dinner, and the President 
made an exalted speech. He is spiritually great, Mary, 
and don't you dare smile and think of the widow ! We 
are all dual, old Emerson said it in his Essay on Free Willy 
and Adolph can tell you what old Greek said it. And this 
duality is where the fight comes in, and the two people walk 
side by side, to-day is Jekyll's day, and tomorrow is Hyde's, 
and so they alternate. 

Well, the Gridiron was a grind on Bryan and Villard and 
Ford, and a boost for preparedness and Garrison and the 
Army and Navy. Tell Adolph they had a Democratic mule, 
two men walking together under a cover, the head end 
reasonable, the hind end kicking — the front end of course 
represented the W T ilson crowd and the hind end the Bryan- 
Kitchen, — and the two wouldn't work together. The 
whole thing was splendidly done and was a lesson to the 
few Democrats who were there — which they won't learn. 

Nancy went to her second party last night — a joyous 
thing in a new evening cloak of old rose, which made her 
feel that Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba and Mrs. Gait 
and ail other exalted ladies had nothing on her. What 



190 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

a glorious thing life would be if we could remain children, 
with all the simple joys and none of the horrors that age 
brings on. There is certainly a good fifty per cent chance 
that this fine spirit will marry some damn brute who will 
worry and harass the soul out of her. For so the world 
goes, i I hope she'll be as fortunate as you have been. 

To-night we go to the Polks to see Mrs. Martin Egan 
who was on a torpedoed ship in the Mediterranean, and 
although she couldn't swim floated forty-five minutes till 
rescued. You must know the Polks well. She has very 
real charm and your old Mormon of a husband will desert 
his other fairies for her. 

Now I have gossiped and preached and prophesied and 
mourned and otherwise revealed what passes through a 
wandering mind in half an hour, so I send you, at the close 
of this screed, my blessing, which is a poor gift, and I would 
send you the parcel post limit of my love if it weren't for 
Anne and Adolph, who are narrow-minded Dutch Calvinists. 
May good fortune betide you and bring you back very soon 
to the many whose hearts are sympathetic. 

Frank 

To Mrs. Magnus Andersen 

Washington, D.C., December 24, [1915] 

My dear Maudie, — It is Christmas eve, and while Nancy 
and Anne are filling the mysterious stockings, I am writing 
these letters to the best of brothers and sister. It has been 
a long, a disgracefully long time since I wrote you, but I 
have kept in touch pretty well through George and 
Anne. ... So you have now a philosophy — something 
to hang to ! I am glad of it. The standpoint is the valu- 
able thing. There are profound depths in the idea that 
lies under Christian Science, but like all other new things it 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 191 

goes to unreasonable lengths. "Be Moderate," were the 
words written over the Temple on the Acropolis, and this 
applies to all things. This world is curiously complex, and 
no one knows how to answer all our puzzles. Sometimes 
I think that God himself does not. There is a fine poem 
by Emerson called, The Sphinx, which is the most hopeful 
thing that I have found, because it recognizes the dual world 
in which we live, for everything goes not singly but in pairs 

— good and evil, matter and mind. Then, too, you may 
be interested in his essay on Fate. 

Dear Fritz — dear, dear boy, how I wish I could be there 
with him, though I could do no good. . . . Each night 
I pray for him, and I am so much of a Catholic that I pray 
to the only Saint I know or ever knew and ask her to help. 
If she lives her mind can reach the minds of the doctors 
just as surely as there is such a thing as transmission 
of thought between us, or hypnotism. I don't need her to 
intercede with God, but I would like her to intercede with 
man. Why, oh why, do we not know whether she is or not ! 
Then all the universe would be explained to me. The only 
miracle that I care about is the resurrection. If we live 
again we certainly have reason for living now. I think that 
belief is the foundation hope of religion. Anne has it with 
a certainty that is to me nothing less than amazing. And 
people of noble minds, of exalted spirits, not necessarily of 
greatest intellects have it. George has it in his own way, 
and he is certainly one of the real men of the earth. The 
President has it strongly. He is, in fact, deeply, truly re- 
ligious. The slanders on him are infamous.. 

. . . We are to have the quietest possible Christmas. 
No one but ourselves at dinner — I give no presents at all 

— for financially we are up to our eyebrows. I probably 
will work all day except for an hour or two which I shall 



192 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

use in playing with Nancy, for her gay spirit will not allow 
anything but the Christmas spirit to prevail. She is so 
like our Dear One, so determined, cheerful, hopeful, 
courageous, yet very shy. Ned will be out all night 
at dances and tomorrow too, for he is a most popular chap 
and very well-behaved indeed. His manners are excellent 
and he has plenty of dash. He is learning these things now 
which I learned only after many years, the little things which 
make the conventional man of the world. 

I hope that you will find the New Year one of great peace 
of mind and real serenity of soul. May you commune with 
the Spirit of the Infinite and find yourself growing more 
and more in the spiritual image of the Dear One. 

My tenderest love to you and to your good high-hearted 
man, and to the Boy. 

Frank 

To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller 

Washington [1915] 

This is a Christmas letter and is addressed: — "To a 
Brave Young Woman. " I am afraid it is not just as cheery 
and merry as it should be because, you see, it's like this, I 
am poor — very, very poor, and I have very good taste 
— very, very good taste. Now those two things can't get 
on together at Christmas. Then, too, I am busy — very, 
very busy, so I don't have time to shop. Now if you were 
very, very poor and had very, very good taste and were very, 
very busy and couldn't shop — how in heaven could you 
buy anything for anyone? 

I did take half an hour or so to look at things, and things 
were so ugly that were cheap that of course I couldn't buy 
them without confessing poor taste, or they were so very 
expensive that I couldn't buy them without confessing bank- 



EUROPEAN WAR AND PERSONAL CONCERNS 193 

ruptcy. Now there you are ! So what could a poor boy 
do but come home empty-handed, nothing for Anne or 
Nancy or Ned or you — not even something for myself ! 
And I need things, socks and pipe, and better writing paper 
than this, and music and toothpaste and some new clothes, 
and a house near your palace, and a more contented spirit 
and another job and Ahellofalotof things. Don't get 
nervous about me, because I'm not going to kill myself for 
lack of all these things, although a true-born Samurai, loyal 
to Bushido might do so. For it is dishonor not to be rich 
at Christmas time; not to feel rich, anyway. But then let 
me see what I've got ! There's Anne ! I expect if sold on 
the block, at public auction, say in Alaska, where women 
are scarce, she would bring some price ; but her digestion 
isn't very good and her heart is quite weak and her hair is 
falling out. But these things, of course, the auctioneer 
wouldn't reveal. She would make a fine Duchess, but the 
market just now is overstocked with Duchesses. And she 
is a good provider when furnished with the provisions. 

Now there is Ned — he could hire out as a male assistant 
to a female dancer and get fifty a week, perhaps. Nancy 
couldn't even do that. They are both liabilities. So there 
you are, with Duchesses on the contraband list, and Nancy 
not old enough to marry a decayed old Pittsburg million- 
aire, I will be compelled to keep on working. For my assets 
aren't what your noble husband would call quick, though 
they are live. I really don't know what to do. I shall wait 
till Anne comes home and then, as usual, do what she says. 

I really did look for something for you. But the only 
thing I saw that I thought you would care for was a brooch, 
opal and diamonds for seven hundred and seventy-five dol- 
lars, so I said you wouldn't care for it. But I bought it 
for you d la Christian Science. You have it, see ? I think 



194 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

you have it, that I gave it to you. And that Adolph doesn 't 
know it, see? 

Well you have the opal and I am happy because you are 
enjoying it. Such fire ! What a superb setting ! And such 
refined taste, platinum, do you notice ! oh, so modest ! No 
one else has any such jewel. How Henry will admire it 
— and how mystified Adolph is ! Tell him you bought it 
out of the money you saved on corned beef. How I shall 
enjoy seeing you wear it, and knowing that it bears in its 
fiery heart all the ardent poetry that I would fain pour out, 
but am deterred by my shyness. But you will understand ! 
Each night you must take it out just for a glimpse before 
saying your prayers. The opal is from Australia, the 
platinum from Siberia, the diamonds from Africa, the setting 
was designed in Paris. And here it is, the circle of the world 
has been made to secure this little thing of beauty for you. 
What symbolism ! 

I hope it will make you happy, and cause you to forget 
all your pain and weakness. It has given me great hap- 
piness to give you this little gift. And so we will both have 
a merry Christmas. 

Frank 



VIII 
AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 

1916 

On Writing English — Visit to Monticello — Citizenship for Indians 
— On Religion — American-Mexican Joint Commission 

To William M. Bole 
Great Falls Tribune 

Washington, December 29, 1915 

Dear Bole, — I am very much gratified by the manner 
in which you treated my annual report. Certainly my 
old newspaper training has stood me in good stead in writ- 
ing my reports. In fact it always has, for while I was Cor- 
poration Counsel in San Francisco, and a member of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, I wrote legal opinions 
that were intelligible to the layman, and I tried to present 
my facts in such manner as to make their presentation in- 
teresting. The result was that the courts read my opinions 
and sustained them, but whether they were equally impres- 
sive upon the strictly legal mind, I have my doubts, because 
you know inside the "union" there is a strong feeling that 
the argot of the bar must be spoken and the simplest legal 
questions dealt with in profound, philosophic, latinized 
vocabulary. 

I remember that after I was elected Corporation Counsel, 
when I was almost unknown to the bar of San Francisco, I 
began to hear criticism from my legal friends that my opin- 
io 



196 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

ions were written in English that was too simple, so I in- 
dulged myself by writing a dozen or so in all the heavy style 
that I could put on, writing in as many Latin phrases and 
as much old Norman French as was possible. This was by 
way of showing the crowd that I was still a member of the 
union. 

I find that all our scientific bureaus suffer from the same 
malady. These scientists write for each other, as the 
women say they dress for each other. One of the first 
orders that I issued was that our letters should be written in 
simple English, in words of one syllable if possible, and on 
one page if possible. 

Soon after I came here I found a letter from one of our 
lawyers to an Indian, explaining the conditions of his title, 
that was so involved and elaborately braided and beaded 
and fringed that I could not understand it myself. I out- 
raged the sensibilities of every lawyer in the Department, 
and we have five hundred or more of them, by sending this 
letter back and asking that it be put in straightaway Eng- 
lish. . . . Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mrs. Adolph C. Miller 

Washington, [January 1, 1910] 

Having just sent a wire to you I shall now indulge my- 
self in a few minutes talk with that many-sided, multiple- 
natured, quite obvious-and-yet-altogether-hidden person who 
is known to me as Mary Miller. 

The flash of brilliant crimson on the eastern side of the 
opal, do you catch it? Now that is the flash of courage, 
the brilliant flame that will lead you to hold your head high. 
... I like very much what you say as to wearing our jewel 
"discreetly but constantly." No combination of words 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 197 

could more perfectly express the relationship which this 
bit of sunrise has established between us — devotion, loy- 
alty, telepathic communication without publicity. I am 
sure you are belittling yourself, . . . you are a game bird, 
— good, you understand, but with a tang, a something 
wild in flavor, a touch of the woods and mountain flowers 
and hidden dells in bosky places, and wanderings and sweet 
revolt against captivity. . . . 

This is my first line of the New Year. Anne is a true 
daughter of Martha this morning — her heart is troubled 
with many things, getting ready for the raid of the Huns 
this afternoon. She says she will write when she re-pos- 
sesses herself of her right arm. Good health ! 

Some days later 

... I have been receiving your wireless messages all 
week, my dear Mary, and not one was an S. O. S. Good ! 
The fair ship Mary Miller is safe. Hurrah ! She never 
has been staunch, but she was the gayest thing on the sea, 
and when her sails were all set from jib to spanker she made 
a gladsome sight, and some speed. 

Of course, being so gay she was venturesome. That's 
where the Devil comes in. He is always looking about for 
the gay things. He hates anything that doesn't make medi- 
cine for him. If you are gay you are likely to be venture- 
some, and if venturesome, you can be led astray. So the 
good ship Mary Miller instead of hugging the shore took a 
try at the vasty deep and got all blown to pieces. Then 
she sent out a cry for help. The wireless worked and now 
with a little puttering along in the sunshine and a lazy sea, 
she will be her gay self once more, and like Kipling's Three 
Decker will "carry tired people to the Islands of the Blest." 

That was a most charming letter you sent me, a real bit 
of intimate talk. Anne read it first. She is very careful as 



198 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

to my reading. And I was glad to know that she could 
discover nothing in it which might injuriously affect my 
trustful young mind. Anne is really a good woman. I 
don't believe in husband's abusing their wives, publicly. 
Good manners are essential to happiness in married life. 
We are short on manners in this country, and that explains 
the prevalence of divorce. How much better, as our friend 
L. Sterne once said, "These things are ordered in France." 

F. K. L. 

To Edward F. Adams 

San Francisco Chronicle 

Washington, January 11, 1916 

My dear Adams, — I have yours of the 2nd. Of course, 
you can not sue the United States to get possession of its 
property without the consent of the United States ; but I 
will forgive you for all your peculiar and archaic notions re- 
garding government lands and schools and sich, because I 
love you for what you are and not because of your inheri- 
tance of old-fashioned ideas. 

As I am dictating this letter I look up at the wall and dis- 
cover there the head of a bull moose, and that bull moose 
makes me think of all the things you said four years ago 
about Roosevelt. And now he is to be again the master 
of your party — perhaps not a candidate, because he may 
be guilty of an act of self-abnegation and put away the 
crown, or take it in his own hands and place it upon some 
one else's brow. 

I remember the manner — the scornful, satirical, some- 
times pitiful and sometimes abusive manner — in which 
you treated the Bull Moose ; and so we are going to have a 
great spectacle, the Bull Moose and the Elephant kissing 
each other at Chicago ; and seated on the Elephant's shoul- 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 199 

ders will be the crowned mahout with the big barbed stick 
in his hand, telling you which way to turn and when to kneel ! 

Of course, you will abuse us all for our land policies, but 
overlook the fact that the brutalities of these policies were 
committed in other days — those good, old Republican 
days. It really is a wonder that you are not cynical and 
that you still have enthusiasm. I should not be surprised 
if you said your prayers and had belief in another world, 
where all the bad Democrats would sizzle to the eternal 
joy of the good Republicans. In those days I shall look up 
to you and I know that you will not deny me the drop of 
cold water. 

I shall be very much interested in seeing what kind of a 
fist our man Claxton makes out of your school system, and 
I hope you can use him as a means of arousing interest in 
the schools. That is one trouble with the public school 
system, because we get our education for nothing we treat 
it as if it was worth nothing — I mean those of us who are 
parents. We never know that the school exists except to 
make some complaint about discipline or taxes. 

May you live long and be happy. Always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

From time to time as vacancies occurred on the Supreme 
Bench, letters and telegrams came to Lane from friends 
that begged him to allow them to urge his appointment to 
this office. In 1912, 1914, and 1916 the newspapers in 
different parts of the country mentioned him as a probable 
appointee. While, as a young lawyer, this office had seemed 
to him to be one greatly to be desired, after he came to 
Washington and knew more of the nature of the cases that 
necessarily formed the greater part of the work passed upon 
by the Supreme Court, his interest waned. As early as 



200 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

1913 he wrote of the decisions of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, "If we are wise, we are not to be terrorized 
by our own precedents." An office in which there was little 
opportunity for constructive or executive work grew to have 
less and less attraction for him. 



To Carl Snyder 

Washington, January 22, 1916 

My dear Carl, — I am your most dutiful and obedient 
servant; the aforesaid modest declaration being induced 
by your letter of January fifth, offering to place me on the 
Bench. I regret greatly that you are not the President of 
the United States, but he seems to have a notion that it 
would be a shame to spoil an excellent Secretary of the 
Interior. 

Talking of robes, there is an idea in Chesterton that is 
not bad, that all those who exercise power in the world wear 
skirts — the judge, who can officially kill a man ; the woman, 
who can unofficially do the same thing ; and the King, who 
is the State ; likewise the Pope, who can save the souls of all. 

Garrett was in to-day, and if you haven't seen him since 
his return, edge up next to him. He is full of facts, some of 
which are new to us. 

I guess I am to credit you with that little editorial in 
Collier's, eh ? Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane 
Atlantic City 

Washington, February 5, 1916 

Most respected Lady, — Having just returned from lunch- 
eon and being in the enjoyment of a cigar of fine aroma 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 201 

I sit me down for a quiet talk. I am visualizing you as by 
my side and addressing you in person. 

First, no doubt, you will care to hear of the reception 
given at the White House last evening. According to your 
directions, I first dined with the Secretary of Agriculture, 
his wife, and a lady from Providence. . . . Going then to 
the White House we socialized for a few minutes before 
proceeding down stairs. The President expressed himself 
as regretting your absence, and the President's lady, having 
heard from you, expressed solicitude as to your health. I 
loitered for a few minutes behind the line and then betook 
me to the President's library, where I spent most of the 
evening hearing the Postmaster General tell of the great 
burden that it was to have a Congress on his hands. Ber- 
nard Shaw writes of the Superman, and so does, I believe, 
the crazy philosopher of Germany. I was convinced last 
night that I had met one in the flesh. . . . 

The President is cheerful, regarding his Western tour as 
one of triumph. His lady still wears the smile which has 
given her such pre-eminence. Mrs. Marshall was in line, 
looking like a girl of twenty. Those absent were the Wife 
of the Secretary of War, the wife of the Secretary of the 
Interior, and the wife of the Secretary of Labor. . . . 

You have two most excellent children, dear madam — a 
youth of some eighteen years who has a frisky wit and a 
more frisky pair of feet. Your daughter is a most charming 
witch. I mean by this not to refer to her age . . . but 
to that combination of poise, directness, tenderness, fire, 
hypocrisy, and other feminine virtues which go to make up 
the most charming, because the most elusive, of your sex. 
I am inclined to believe that Mr. Ruggles, of Red Gap, 
would not regard either your son or your daughter as fitted 
for those high social circles in which they move by reason 



202 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

of the precision of their vocabulary or their extreme reserve 
in manner, both being of very distinct personality. One is 
flint and the other steel, I find, so that fire is struck when 
they come together. While engaged, however, in the game 
of draw poker, these antipathetic qualities do not reveal 
themselves in such a manner as to seriously affect domestic 
peace. I have spent two entire evenings with your chil- 
dren, much to my entertainment. That I will not be able 
to enjoy this evening with them is a matter of regret, but 
I am committed to a dinner with the Honorable Kirke Por- 
ter, and tomorrow evening I believe that I am to dine with 
the lady on R. Street, the name of the aforesaid lady being 
now out of my mind, but you will recall her as having a bril- 
liant mind and very slight eyebrows. 

Neither the President nor myself alluded to the late la- 
mented oversight on his part, and on meeting the members 
of the Supreme Court I did not find that by the omission 
to appoint me on said Court the members thereof felt that 
a great national loss had been suffered. No one, in fact, 
throughout the evening alluded to this miscarriage of wis- 
dom. . . . 

. . . Much solicitude was expressed by many of those 
present regarding your health. I told them in my off-hand 
manner that I was enjoying your absence greatly. . . . 

Having now had this most enjoyable talk with you, I 
shall delight myself with an hour's discussion of oil leases 
upon the Osage Reservation with one Cato Sells. 

Believe me, my dear madam, your most respectful obe- 
dient, humble, meek, modest, mild, loyal, loving, and dis- 
consolate servant, 

Franklin K. Lane 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 203 

To Will Irwin 

Washington, February 11, 1916 
Dear Wilt,, — So you are off for the happiest voyage you 
have ever made, with the girl of your heart, to see the 
whole world being changed and a new world made. What 
a joy ! Don't put off returning too long. Remember that 
books must be timely now, and after you have a gizzard 
full of good chapter headings, come back and grind. 

Nancy entirely approves of your wife and her books. As 
always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To 

Washington, February 29, 1916 
... It is none of my business, but I have just seen an 
article coming out over your name respecting Pinchot, the 
wisdom of which I doubt. I have never found any good 
to come by blurring an issue by personal contest or antago- 
nisms. You asked me when you left if you might not come 
in once in a while and talk with me, and I am taking the 
liberty in this way of dropping in on you, for I am deeply 
interested in water power development and want to see 
something result this Session. 

I have no time to waste in fighting people, and I have 
found that by pursuing this policy I can promote measures 
that I favor. To fight for a thing, the best way is to show 
its advantages and the need for it, and ignore those who do 
not take the same view, because there is an umpire in Con- 
gress that must balance the two positions, and therefore I 
can rely upon the strength of my position as against the 
weakness of the other man's position. If those who are in 
favor of water power development get to fighting each other, 
nothing will result. 



204 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I am giving you the benefit of this attitude of mine for 
your own guidance. It may be entirely contrary to the 
policy that you, or your people, wish to pursue and my only 
solicitude is that the things I am for, should not be held 
back any longer by personal disputes. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, March 13, 1916 

My dear Mr. President, — I shall be pleased to go to the 
San Diego Exposition, on my way to San Francisco, and say 
a word as your representative at its opening. 

I hope that you may find your way made less difficult 
than now appears possible, as to entering Mexico. My 
judgment is that to fail in getting Villa would ruin us in the 
eyes of all Latin- Americans. I do not say that they respect 
only force, but like children they pile insult upon insult if 
they are not stopped when the first insult is given. If I 
can be of any service to you by observation or by carrying 
any message for you to anybody, while I am West, I trust 
that you will command me. I can return by way of Ari- 
zona and New Mexico. . . . Faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Lane re-opened the California International Exposition 
at San Diego, where, voicing the President's regret that he 
could not himself be present, Lane said, — "He had in- 
tended to make this trip himself ; but circumstances, some to 
the east of him and some to the south of him, made that 
impossible. . . . Pitted against him are the trained and 
cunning intellects of the whole world, . . . and no one can be 
more conscious than is he that it is difficult to reconcile pride 




FRANKLIN K. LANE WITH ETHAN ALLEN, SUPERINTENDENT OF 
RAINIER NATIONAL PARK 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 205 

and patience. I give you his greeting therefore, not out of a 
heart that is joyous and buoyant, but out of a heart that is 
grave and firm in its resolution that the future of our Re- 
public and all republics shall not be put in peril." 

From San Diego he went north to San Francisco, to see 
his brother Frederic J. Lane, who had been ill for some 
months. After a few days with him Lane returned to his 
desk, in Washington. 



To Frederic J. Lane 

Washington, April 26, 1916 

My dear Fritz, — ... I certainly will not despair of 
your being cured until every possible resource has been ex- 
hausted. The odds, it seems to me, are in your favor. 
Whenever Abrams and Vecchi say that they have done all 
that they can, if you are still in condition to travel, I want 
you to try the Arkansas Hot Springs and I will go down 
there to meet you. . . . 

I wrote you from the train the other day on my way to 
Harpers Ferry, where I took an auto and went down through 
the Shenandoah Valley and across the mountains to Char- 
lottesville, where the University of Virginia is. I went 
with the Harlans. Anne joined us at Charlottesville. . . . 
We visited Monticello, where Jefferson lived, and saw a 
country quite as beautiful as any valley I know of in Cali- 
fornia, not even excepting the Santa Clara Valley, in prune 
blossom time. Those old fellows who built their houses a 
hundred years ago knew how to build and build beautifully. 
We have no such places in California as some that were 
built a hundred and fifty years ago in Virginia, and they 
did not care how far they got away from town, in those 
days. 



206 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Jefferson's house is up on the top of a hill, as are most of 
the others, — there are very few on the roads. Most of 
them are from a mile to five miles back, and although the 
land is covered with timber they built of brick, and im- 
ported Italian laborers to do the wood-carving. When I 
think of how much less in money and in trouble make a 
place far more magnificent in California, I wonder our 
people have not lovelier places. Of course, the difference is 
that in Virginia there were just three classes of people — 
the aristocrat, the middle class, and the negroes. The 
aristocracy had the land, the middle class were the artisans, 
and the negroes the slaves. The only ones who had fine 
houses were the aristocracy, whereas with us the great mass 
of our people are business and professional men of compara- 
tively small means and we have few men who build palaces. 

Things have blown up in Ireland, I see, and the Irish 
are going to suffer for this foolish venture. This man Case- 
ment who is posing as the George Washington of the Irish 
revolution, has held office all his life under the English Gov- 
ernment and now draws a pension. His last position was 
that of Consul General at Rio de Janeiro. I got a pam- 
phlet from him a year or so ago, in which he proposed an 
alliance between Germany, the Republic of Ireland, and the 
Republic of the United States, which should control the 
politics of the world. . . . 

Doesn't the thought of Henry Ford as Presidential can- 
didate . . . surprise you? It looks to me very much as if 
the Ford vote demonstrates Roosevelt's weakness as a can- 
didate. Last night I went to dinner at old Uncle Joe Can- 
non's house, and as I came out Senator O'Gorman pointed 
to Uncle Joe and Justice Hughes talking together and said, 
' There is the old leader passing over the wand of power to 
the new leader. "... 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 207 

Well, old man, I know that I do not need to tell you to 
keep your spirits up and your faith strong. Give me all 
the news, good as well as bad. Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Frank I. Cobb 

New York World 

Washington, May 8, 1916 

My dear Cobb, — Here is a memorandum that has been 
drafted respecting the leasing bill, that we are now pushing 
to have taken up by the Senate. This bill, as you know, 
covers oil, phosphate, and potash lands. . . . There are 
three million acres of phosphate lands, two and a half mil- 
lion acres of oil lands, and a small acreage of potash lands, 
under withdrawal now, that cannot be developed because 
of lack of legislation. . . . 

The situation here is tense. Of course, nobody knows 
what will be done. I favor telling Germany that we will 
make no trade with her, and if she fails to make good her 
word we will stop talking to her altogether. I am getting 
tired of having the Kaiser and Carranza vent their impu- 
dence at our expense, because they know we do not want to 
go to war and because they want to keep their own people 

in line. . . . Cordially yours, 

Lane 

To George W. Wickersham 

Washington, May 17, 1916 

My dear Wickersham, — I am just back from a trip to 
South Dakota, where I, by ritual, a copy of which is inclosed 
for your perusal, made citizens out of a bunch of Indians 
who never can become hyphenates, and for this reason your 
letter has remained unanswered. 



208 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

And just because we love you, and love ourselves even 
better, we will break all rules, precedents, promises, appoint- 
ments, agreements, and covenants of all kinds whatsoever, 
and steal over to see you a week from Saturday. Just 
what hour I will wire you, and what time we can stay de- 
pends upon things various and sundry. But you may de- 
pend upon it that it will be as long a time as a very flexible 
conscience will permit. 

Remember me, in terms of endearment, to that noble 
lady who desolated Washington by her departure. As 
always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To H. B. Brougham 

Washington, May 20, 1916 

Dear Mr. Brougham, — ... I recently returned from 
the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota where I 
admitted some one hundred and fifty competent Indians 
to full American citizenship in accordance with a ritual. . . . 
The ceremony was really impressive and taken quite se- 
riously by the Indians. Why should not some such cere- 
mony as this be used when we give citizenship to foreigners 
who come to this country? Surely it tends to instil pa- 
triotism and presents the duties of citizenship in a manner 
that leaves a lasting impression. Here is a story that 
should be interesting to all, if properly presented. Cor- 
dially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Indian Ritual Admission to Citizenship 

The Secretary stands before one of the candidates and says : — 
"Joseph T. Cook, what was your Indian name?" 
"Tunkansapa," answers the Indian. 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 209 

"Tunkansapa, I hand you a bow and arrow. Take this bow 
and shoot the arrow." 

The Indian does so. 

"Tunkansapa, you have shot your last arrow. That means 
you are no longer to live the life of an Indian. You are from this 
day forward to live the life of the white man. But you may keep 
that arrow. It will be to you a symbol of your noble race and of 
the pride you may feel that you come from the first of all Ameri- 
cans." 

Addressing Tunkansapa by his white name. 

"Joseph T. Cook, take in your hands this plough." Cook does 
so. 'This act means that you Lave chosen to live the life of the 
white man. The white man lives by work. From the earth we 
must all get our living, and the earth will not yield unless man pours 
upon it the sweat of his brow. 

"Joseph T. Cook, I give you a purse. It will always say to 
you that the money you gain must be wisely kept. The wise 
man saves his money, so that when the sun does not smile and 
the grass does not grow he will not starve." 

The Secretary now takes up the American flag. He and the 
Indian hold it together. 

"I give into your hands the flag of your country. This is the 
only flag you ever will have. It is the flag of free men, the flag 
of a hundred million free men and women, of whom you are now 
one. That flag has a request to make of you, Joseph T. Cook, 
that you repeat these words." 

Cook then repeats the following after the Secretary. 

"Forasmuch as the President has said that I am worthy to be a 
citizen of the United States, I now promise this flag that I will 
give my hands, my head, and my heart to the doing of all that 
will make me a true American citizen." 

The Secretary then takes a badge upon which is the American 
eagle, with the national colors, and, pinning it upon the Indian's 
breast, speaks as follows : — 

"And now, beneath this flag, I place upon your breast the em- 
blem of citizenship. Wear this badge always, and may the eagle 



210 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

that is on it never see you do aught of which the flag will not be 
proud." 

To Frederic J. Lane 

Washington, June 6, 1916 

My dear Fritz, — We have a letter from Mary this morn- 
ing saying you are holding your own pretty well, which is 
mighty good news, and that Abrams is still convinced that 
he is right, which is also good news. By the same mail I 
learn that Hugo Asher was hit by a train and nearly killed. 
Whether he will recover or not is a question. Asher is a 
most lovable fellow and loyal to the core. It would break 
my heart to have him go. I got into my fight with Hearst 
over Asher. His people demanded that I should fire Asher, 
and I refused to do it. 

I guess you are beaten on Roosevelt, old man. The word 
that we get here is that he is done for at Chicago. Of course 
before this gets to you the nomination will be made. My 
own thought has been that he laid too much stress on the 
support of big business. To have Gary, and Armour, and 
Perkins as your chief boomers doesn't make you very popu- 
lar in Kansas and Iowa. Hughes may be the easiest man 
to beat, after all, because he vetoed the Income tax amend- 
ment in New York, a two-cent fare bill, and other things 
which are pretty popular. He is a good man, honest and 
fine, but not a liberal. The whole Congressional push has 
been for Hughes for months, but I haven't believed that 
he would accept the nomination. I made the prophesy 
to some newspaper men the other day that Roosevelt would 
get in and endorse Hughes with both fists. They were in- 
clined to doubt this, but I still believe that I am right. . . . 

To-day, comes word that Kitchener has been drowned and 
Yuan Shi Kai poisoned. Heaven knows whose turn comes 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 211 

next. Just think of three such events within a week as 
that sea battle off Denmark, the greatest naval battle of 
the world; the torpedoing of the Secretary of War and all 
of his staff ; and the poisoning of the Emperor of China. I 
doubt if there ever was a period in the whole history of the 
world when things moved as fast and there was as much 
that was exciting. Of course now we have it all thrown onto 
a screen in front of our faces, whereas a hundred years ago 
we would have had to wait for perhaps a year before know- 
ing that the Emperor of China had been killed. Neverthe- 
less I think there is more passion and violence on exhibition 
to-day than at any time in a great many years. 

I had a talk with the President the other day which was 
very touching. He made reference to the infamous stories 
that are being circulated regarding him with such indigna- 
tion and pathos that I felt really very sorry for him. I 
suppose that these stories will be believed by some and made 
the basis of a very nasty kind of campaign. But there is 
no truth in them and yet a man can't deny them. It is a 
strange thing that when a man is not liable to any other 
charge they trump up some story about a woman. . . . 

Now my dear boy, may you have a continuance of cour- 
age, for there is no telling what day the tide may turn and 
things swing your way. We know so damned little about 
nature yet. Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, June 8, 1916 

My dear Mr. President, — I see by the papers that it is 
repeatedly announced that you are writing the platform. 
Now I want to take the liberty of saying that this is not 



212 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

altogether good news to me. Our platform should contain 
such an appreciation of you and your administration, that 
you could not write it, much less have it known that you 
have written it. It should be one long joyful shout of ex- 
ultation over the achievements of the Administration, and 
I can't quite see you leading the shout. 

The Republican party was for half a century a construc- 
tive party, and the Democratic party was the party of 
negation and complaint. We have taken the play from 
them. The Democratic party has become the party of con- 
struction. You have outlined new policies and put them 
into effect through every department, from State to Labor. 
Therefore, our platform should be generously filled with 
words of boasting that will hearten and make proud the 
Democrats of the country ; a plain tale of large things 
simply done. 

If there is any truth at all in the newspaper statement 
and any purpose in making it, perhaps the end that is de- 
sired might be reached by a statement that you are not 
undertaking to write the platform, but that at the request 
of some of the leaders you are giving them a concrete state- 
ment of your foreign policy. Faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane 
Essex on Champlain, N. Y. 

Washington, June 22, 1916 

My dear Anne, — I am just back this minute from Brown 
[University] where I had a right good time. I arrived in 
the morning early and kept the Dean waiting for me for a 
half an hour. . . . 

After breakfast I went over to the University grounds, 
which are very quaint, on the crest of a hill with fine old 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 213 

buildings, and there found that Hughes was the hero of the 
day, of course ; every step he took he was cheered. He was 
very genial about it. We marched in our robes, down 
through the winding streets of this old New England town 
to a meeting house one hundred and seventy-five years old, 
and there we sat in pews, while the President of Brown, 
Mr. Faunce, gave the degrees in Latin. I have not heard 
so much Latin since I left school. There were a pretty 
good looking lot of boys, about half of them New Englanders 
and about half of them Westerners. We heard some ora- 
tions by the students and then marched up the hill again 
where we had lunch, and then went over to a great tent on 
the campus where William Roscoe Thayer — who wrote 
the life of Hay — President Faunce, Judge Brown, Mr. 
Hughes, and I spoke. 

I spoke for about half an hour. My speech fitted in 
very well, because Thayer preceded me, and he spoke of the 
lack of an American spirit ; I had already prepared a speech 
upon the abundance of American spirit, 1 so that I answered 
Thayer, and answered him with scorn. I told him that if 
New England was growing weak in her American pride or 
her vigor that we would take these boys and carry them out 
West where there was not any lack of virility or hardiness 
or red blood, and that if they wanted to know whether the 
American was willing to fight or not, to go to any recruit- 
ing office of the United States to-day and see how crowded 
it was. I told them about our pioneers, who were taking 
up ten or twelve million acres of land, the men who had 
gone to Alaska, and then turned upon the real proposition 
which was that there was a difference between national 
spirit and martial spirit. 

War used to be the only opportunity for glory or romance 

1 Speech published in book entitled, The American Spirit. 



214 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

or achievement, while there are a million other opportuni- 
ties now open, because man's imagination has grown. In 
the morning the College had given honorary degrees of 
LL.D. to Brand Whitlock and Herbert Hoover. So when 
I came to the close of my talk I told them about Hoover's 
Belgian work, and that Brand Whitlock had refused to leave 
Brussels ; and while there was no English and no French 
and no Italian and no Spanish and no other flag in Brussels, 
the Stars and Stripes in front of the American Legation had 
never come down, and the Belgian peasant when he went 
to his work in the morning took his hat off in honor of our 
flag, and I asked those people to stand with me in front of 
that peasant to take their hats off and take heart. 

Well, I had the crowd with me right along. Then Hughes 
came and he took American Spirit as his text, and he made 
it quite evident what his campaign is going to be; that it 
is going to be a charge, veiled and very poorly supported 
by facts, that we have not known where we were going, that 
we were vacillating, that we did not have any enthusiasm, 
that we did not arouse the people and make them feel proud 
that they were Americans. How in the mischief he is going 
to get away with this, I do not understand. Whom were 
we to be mad at — England, or Germany, or everybody in 
the world ? Were we to war with the entire outfit ? He 
seems to be able to have satisfied the Providence Journal, 
which is run by an Australian who has been running the 
spy system for the British Embassy, and has been printing 
a lot . . . about Germany and all the German press. If 
he can get away with this he is some politician. I see that 
Teddy has had an understanding with him. Von Meyer 
was there yesterday to hold a conference with him. 

But I do not think that we lost anything in the discussion 
of yesterday. There were not any Democrats there who 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 215 

were not on their toes at the end of the meeting; but, of 
course, practically everybody in Rhode Island is a Repub- 
lican. It is the closest thing to a proprietary estate that I 
have ever seen. 

... I left at 6 o'clock and on my way back met Presi- 
dent Vincent, of Minneapolis, and George Foster Peabody. 
You knew that Frank Kellogg was nominated, 1 didn't you, 
Clapp running third ? ... 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mrs. Adolph Miller 

Washington, July 4, 1916 

... I see you with blooming cheeks and star-lit eyes 
peeping out from under a sun-bonnet, enshrined in all the 
glories of the mountain redwoods, and I long to be with you 
if only to get some of the freshness and joy of the Califor- 
nia mountains into my rather desolate soul. 

How is the old clam ? Do his lips come together in that 
precise Prussian way, and does he order the universe about ? 
Or does a new spirit come over him when he gets with na- 
ture? Is she a soothing mistress who smooths his stiff 
hair with her soft hand, and pats his cheek and nestles him 
in her arms, and with her cool breath makes him forget a 
federal, or any other kind, of reserve? 

Why has nature been so unkind to me as to make me a 
lover but always from afar, never to come near her, never 
to compel me to a sweet surrender, never to give me peace 
and contentment, never to so surround me as to keep out 
the world of fools and follies and pharisees? 

You know, I would like to write some servant girl novels. 
I believe I could do it. My love-making would either be 
rather tame and stiff or too intensely early Victorian. But 

1 For the United States Senate. 



216 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I should like to swing off into an ecstasy of large turgid 
words and let my mind hear the mushy housemaid cry, 
"Isn't that just too sweet !" ... 

I enclose a copy of my speech made at Brown University. 
Perhaps it will interest that old farmer potato bug. He does 
not deserve to have it said, but I miss him very much. 
Please obey him an' you love me. Cut out all social activi- 
ties, giving yourself up to the acquisition of a few more of 
the right kind of corpuscles in your too-blue blood. As 
always, yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mrs. Franklin K. Lane 
Essex-on-Champlain 

Washington, July 4, 1916 

. . . There is no news that I can give you. The wea- 
ther is very warm. Politics is growing warmer. I think 
Heney will run for Senator in California, probably against 
Hiram Johnson. Will Crocker is also said to be a candidate 
for the Republican nomination. I could get the nomina- 
tion by saying that I would accept. Phelan told me yes- 
terday that he would see that all the necessary money was 
raised, — that I could win in a walk. Dockweiler says the 
same thing. The latter is here and we have seen much of 
each other. What do you say if I run for Senator? I 
really feel very much tempted to do it at times because 
things have been made so uncomfortable by some of my 
fool colleagues who have butted in on my affairs ; and then 
I feel I would like the excitement of the stump and to make 
the personal appeal once more. You could go round with 
me over the State in an automobile. While I would not 
insist upon your making speeches for me, I know that your 
presence would add greatly to my success. 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 217 

There is no telling what way this campaign may go. It 
may be a landslide for Wilson, it may be a landslide the 
other way. We have the hazards because we have the de- 
cision of questions. There is bound to be a lot of objection 
to whatever course we take with regard to Mexico. I fear 
from what Benjamin Ide Wheeler told me the other day 
that Germany any day may decide to put her submarines 
into active service again on the old lines, especially if things 
on land go as they have been going lately against the Teu- 
tons. 

... I shall not decide in favor of accepting the nomi- 
nation until I hear from you. In the meantime don't lose 
any sleep over it. And so my Nancy has a beau? Well, 
the little rascal must be given some good advice now. So 
I shall turn my attention to her. . . . 

F. K. L. 

Washington, July 24, 1916 

. . . To-day I have spent most quietly, — had Bill 
W 7 heeler up for breakfast and then went to the Cosmos Club 
for lunch with Dockweiler. He is very anxious to get a 
Catholic on the Mexican Commission and so am I. I want 
Chief Justice White, but I fear the President won't ask 
him. . . . 

Dear old Dockweiler is an awfully good man. . . . From 
youth he has gauged every act by his conception of the will 
of God, and in doubt has asked God's representative, the 
priest. What a comforting thing to have a church like 
that ; it makes for happiness, if it does not make for prog- 
ress. Why is it that progress must come from discontent ? 
The latter is the divine spark in man, no doubt, 

" O to be satisfied, satisfied, 
Only to lie at Thy feet." 



218 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

is a hymn we used to sing in church. We yearn to be satis- 
fied and yet we know because we are not satisfied we 
grow. . . . 

"The mystical hanker after something higher," is reli- 
gion, and yet it should not be all of religion ; for man's 
own sake there should be some cross to which one can cling, 
some Christ who can hear and give peace to the waves. I 
wish I could be a Catholic, and yet I can not feel that once 
you have a free spirit that it is right to go back into the mon- 
astery, and shut yourself up away from doubts, making your 
soul strong only through prayer. There are two principles 
in the world fighting all the time, and the one makes the 
other possible. There is no "perfect," there is a "better" 
only. And in this fight one does not become better by 
prayer — prayer is only the ammunition wagon, the supply 
train, where one can get masks for poison gas and cartridges 
for the guns. 

Pfeiffer said a good thing the other day, quite like him 
to say it, too. We were talking of churches and he said he 
never went to one because he did not believe in abasing or 
prostrating himself before God, he saw no sense in it ; God 
didn't respect one for it, and moreover he was part of God 
himself and he couldn't prostrate himself before himself. 
I asked him if he didn't recognize humility as a virtue, and 
he said, "No, the higher you hold your head the more God- 
like you are." 

Humility, to me, seems to be the basis of sympathy. We 
stoop to conquer in that we are not self-assertive and self- 
assured, for if we "know" that we are right we can not know 
how others think or feel. We can not grow. 

You know there are two great classes of people, those 
who are challenged by what they see, and those who are 
not. Now the only kind who grow are the former. But 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 219 

what is it to grow? If we "evermore come out by that 
same door wherein we went" surely there is no object in 
being curious. Can there be growth when we are in an 
endless circle ? . . . 

Now after all my struggle, I fall back not on reason but 
on instinct, on a primal desire, and perhaps this is my rudi- 
mentary soul, the mystical hanker after something higher. 
That is a real thing. The purpose of nature seems to be to 
put it into me and make it very important to me. That 
being so I can not overlook it, and must obey it. The thing 
that pleases me as I look back upon it, is the thing I must 
do ; that sets the standard for me ; that is morals and re- 
ligion. If there is any chap who the day after sings with 
joy over being a devil — that man I never heard of — but 
if he takes delight in what he did that was fiendish, then he 
must follow and should follow that bent until he sees that 
it is fiendish. He has to have more light. But I really 
don't believe there is any such fellow, who clearly sees what 
he did and rejoices in it. All of us sing, "I want to be an 
angel." There is the whole of revelation, and all things 
that tend to make us gratify that desire are good. I guess 
that is pragmatism, in words of one syllable. 

You see that all religion comes from a desire to know 
something definite. We prayed logically, in the old time, 
to the devil and tried to propitiate him, so that harm would 
not come to us. That is stage number one in our climb. 
Then we find the good spirit and pray to him to whip the 
devil, which is stage number two. Then we ask the good 
spirit to give us strength to whip the devil ourselves. That 
is stage number three. Buddha and Christ come in the 
number three stage, and that is where we are. We may 
find, as stage number four, that the good spirit is only a 
muscle in our brain or a fluid in our nerves, which we 



220 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

strengthen, and become masters of ourselves — greater, 
stronger, more clear-sighted — without any outside Great 
Spirit. That we are all things in ourselves, and that we are, 
in making ourselves, making the God. I fancy that is Pfeif- 
fer's idea. It is Mezes', I believe. Then comes in the 
mystery of transmitting that highly developed spirit. A 
woman of such a super-soul may marry a man of most car- 
nal nature whose children are held down to earth and gross 
things, and her fine spirit is lost, unless it lives elsewhere. 
So we come back to the question, how is the good preserved ? 
"Never any bright thing dies," may be true, but if so it 
means an immortality of the spirit. This is all confusion 
and despair. We do not see where we are going. But we 
must climb, we must grow, we must do better, for the same 
reason that our bodies must feed. The rest we leave with 
all the other mysteries. . . . 

July 28, 1916 

I am going to dinner . . . and before I go alone into a 
lonesome club, I must send a word to you. Not that I 
have any particular word to say, for my mind is heavy, nor 
that you will find in what I may say anything that will 
illumine the way, but why should we not talk ? What ! 
may a friend not call upon a friend in time of vacancy to lis- 
ten to his idle babble ? O these pestiferous dealers in facts 
and these prosy philosophers, the world must have surcease 
from them and wander in the great spaces. To idle to- 
gether in the sweet fields of the mind — this is companion- 
ship, when thoughts come not by bidding, and argument 
is taboo ; to have the mind as open as that of a child for all 
impressions, and speak as the skylark sings, this is the mood 
that proves companionship. 

I shall be lonely to-night, going into a modern monastery 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 221 

and driving home alone. The world is all people to me. I 
lean upon them. They induce thought and fancy. They 
give color to my life. They keep me from looking inward, 
where, alas ! I never find that which satisfies me. For of 
all men I am most critical of myself. Others when they go 
to bed or sit by themselves may chuckle over things well 
done ; or find satisfaction in the inner life, as George does ; 
but not so with me. Thrown on myself I am a stranded 
bark upon a foreign shore. And this I know is not as it 
should be. Each one should learn to stand alone and find 
in contemplation and in fancy the rich material with which 
to fashion some new fabric, or build more solidly the sub- 
stance of his soul. 

I like to have you talk, as in your latest letter, of the mak- 
ing of yourself. It seems so much more possible than that 
I could do the same. But I am a miserable groping creature, 
cast on a sea of doubt, rejecting one spar to grasp another, 
and crying all the time against the storm, for help. I do 
not know another man who has tortured himself so insist- 
ently with the problems that are unsolvable. You are 
firmer in your grasp, and when you get something you cling 
to it and push your way like a practical person toward the 
shore, that shore of solid earth which is not, but by the push- 
ing you realize the illusion, or the reality, of progress. 

Here I am talking loosely of the greatest things, and 
perhaps pedantically ; well, we agreed to talk, didn't we, 
of anything and everything? You have the birds, the 
lake, the mountains beyond, the children next door, and the 
Fairy all our own, and I have my desk to look at and outside 
brick blocks and the sky. If I ever do hypnotize myself 
into any kind of faith, or find contentment in any one thing, 
it will be the sky. The reason I like the water is because 
it is so much like the sky. There is an amplitude in it that 



222 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

gives me chance for infinite wanderings. The clouds and 
the stars are somehow the most companionable of all things 
that do not walk and talk. 

Well, we have walked a bit together and have come to 
the edge of the field where we look off and see the unending 
stretch of prairie and the great dome. . . . 

Frank 

To William R. Wheeler 

Washington, August 21, 1916 
My dear Bill, — Owing to your departure I have been 
laid up in bed, ill for a week. You left on Thursday and 
on Friday night I went to bed. . . . The doctors don't 
know what I had, excepting that I had things with "itis" 
at the end of them. I have had allopaths, Christian Scien- 
tists, osteopaths, and Dockweilers. The latter has been my 
nurse at night, his chief service being to keep me interested 
in the variety of his snoring. I really have had one damn 
hell of a time. The whole back and top of my head blew 
out, and I expected an eruption of lava to flow down my 
back. The only explanation of it is a combination of air- 
drafts and a little too much work and worry. I am now 
somewhat weak, but otherwise in pretty good condition. . . . 

I have no intention of saying anything in reply to Pin- 
chot. He wrote me thirty pages to prove that I was a liar, 
and rather than read that again I will admit the fact. 

My regards to the Lady Alice Isabel. As always affec- 
tionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To James Harlan 

[August, 1916] 

My dear Jim, — I am writing you from my bed where I 
have been laid up for a few days with a hard dose of tonsilli- 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 223 

tis. Don't know what happened but the wicked bug got me 
and I have suffered more than was good for my slender soul. 

I am so glad to hear of your Mother's improvement. 
Bless her noble heart ! I hope she lives a long time to give 
you the inspiration of that beautiful smile. 

The Mexican business does not hasten as I had hoped. 
Brandeis' withdrawal was a great surprise to us and I can't 
quite understand it. Meantime the railroad situation en- 
grosses our attention fully, and Mexico can wait. . . . 

Hughes' speeches have been a surprise and disappointment 
to me. . . . One might fancy a candidate for Congress 
doing no better but not a man of such record and position. 
I think your dear old party relies upon holding the regular 
party men out of loyalty and protection, and buying enough 
Democrats and crooks to get the majority. But I don't 
believe it can be done. The Republican organization is 
perfect, but the people are not as gullible as once they were. 

Tell me some more about the Latin-American. How 
much form should I put on? Can you warm up to them? 
How do you get the truth out of them? And how do you 
get them to stay by their word ? What are they suspicious 
of, silence or volubility ? Do they expect you to ask for 
more than you expect to get ? Do they appreciate candor 
and fair dealing, or must you be crafty and indirect? If 
they expect the latter I am not the man for the job, but I 
can be patient and listen. My love to the Lady Maud. 

Frank 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, August 28, 1916 

My dear Mr. President, — I have had talks this morning 
with three men, all of them Democrats, all of them strongly 



224 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

for you under any circumstances. None of them are re- 
lated to railroads or to labor unions. Two of them have 
recently been out of this city and believe that they have a 
knowledge of the feeling of the country. All express the 
same view and I want to tell it to you in case you write a 
message to Congress. 

They say that the people do not grasp the meaning of 
your statement that society has made its judgment in favor 
of an eight-hour day. This, the people think, is a mat- 
ter that can be arbitrated. They ask why can't it be arbi- 
trated ? They say that the country feels that you have lined 
yourself up with the labor unions irrevocably for an eight- 
hour day, as against the railroads who wish to arbitrate 
the necessity for putting in an eight-hour day immediately, 
and irrespective of the additional cost to the railroads. 
They say that the men are attempting to bludgeon the rail- 
roads into granting their demand which has not been shown 
to the people to be reasonable. This demand is that the 
men should have ten hours pay for eight hours work or less. 
They say that if this question cannot be arbitrated, the 
railroads must yield on every question and that freight rates 
and passenger rates instead of going down, as they have for 
the past twenty years, must inevitably increasingly go up. 
They say that the people do not realize that you have been 
willing to entertain any proposition made by the railroads, 
but that you have stood steadfastly for something which 
the men have demanded. 

Now, all of this indicates a lack of knowledge of what your 
position has been. I am giving you the gist of these con- 
versations because they represent a point of view so that 
if you desire you may meet such criticism. ; ' 

You must remember, Mr. President, that the American 
people have not had for fifty years a President who was 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 225 

not at this period in a campaign bending all of his power to 
purely personal and political ends. Your ideality and un- 
selfishness are so rare that things need to be made particu- 
larly clear to them. Faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

In the beginning of September Lane was appointed Chair- 
man of the American-Mexican Joint Commission, the other 
Americans being Judge George Gray, of Delaware, and John 
R. Mott, secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. The Mexican members were Luis Cabrera, Minister 
of Finance, Alberto Pani, and Ignatio Bonillas, afterward 
Ambassador to Washington. 

It was the hope of the Administration that this Commis- 
sion would lay the foundation for a better understanding 
between America and Mexico. The Commission started 
its work in New London, but later as the hearings dragged 
on, they went to Atlantic City. 

Just before this Commission was named, Lane wrote to 
his brother, "I have been turned all topsy turvy by the 
Mexican situation. I have suggested to the President the 
establishment of a commission to deal with this matter 
upon a fundamental basis, but Carranza is obsessed with 
the idea that he is a real god and not a tin god, that he holds 
thunderbolts in his hands instead of confetti, and he won't 
let us help him." 

To Alexander Vogelsang 

Acting Secretary of the Interior 

American-Mexican Joint Commission 
September 29, 1916 

My dear Aleck, — Don't worry about yourself. Don't 
worry about the office. You will be all right, and so will 



226 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

the office. I am not worrying about you because I haven't 
got time to. I'll take your job if you will take mine. The 
interpreting of a city charter is nothing to the interpreting 
of the Mexican mind. Dealing with Congress is not so 
difficult as dealing with Mexican statesmen. I have had 
some jobs in my life, but none in which I was put to it as I 
am in this. Now I have not only a question as to what to 
do in the making of a nation, the development of its oppor- 
tunity, the education of its people, the establishment of its 
finances, and the opening of its industries in the establish- 
ment of its relations with other countries, but also the prob- 
lem as to where the men can be found that can carry out 
the program, once it is made. If I were only Dictator I 
could handle the thing, I think, all right. The hardest part 
of all is to convince a proud and obstinate people that they 
really need any help. 

. . . Remember me to the noble bunch of fellows who 
add loyalty to pluck, pluck to capacity. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



To Frederic J. Lane 



American-Mexican Joint Commission 
September 29, 1916 



My dear Fritz, — I sent you a wire the other night just 
to let you know that I was thinking of you. I am now 
steaming down Long Island Sound in the midst of a rain- 
storm and with fog all around us, in the Government's boat 
Sylph. We are on our way to Atlantic City where the con- 
ference will continue, the hotel at New London having been 
closed. . . . 

It looks to me at long range as if Johnson would surely 
carry California. Whether Wilson will, or not, is a ques- 
tion. I hope to God he may. Whether I shall get an op- 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 227 

portunity to get out and stump for him depends entirely 
upon this Commission, which is holding me down hard. 
We are working from ten in the morning till twelve at night, 
and not making as rapid progress as we should because of 
the Latin-American temperament. They want to start a 
government afresh down there ; that is, go upon the theory 
that there never was any government and that they now 
know how a government should be formed and the kind of 
laws there should be, disregarding all that is past, and basing 
their plans upon ideals which sometimes are very imprac- 
ticable. They distrust us. They will not believe that we 
do not want to take some of their territory. 

I despair often, but I take new. courage when I think of 
you, of the struggle you are making and the brave way in 
which you are making it. What a superbly glorious thing 
it would be if you could master the hellish fiend that has 
attacked you ! . . . 

My best love to you, dear Fritz, affectionately yours, 

F. K. L. 



To Frank I. Cobb 
New York World 



American-Mexican Joint Commission 
Atlantic City, November 11, 1916 



My dear Cobb, — My very warm, earnest, and enthusias- 
tic congratulations to you. You made the best editorial 
campaign that I have ever known to be made. I would 
give more for the editorial support of the New York World 
than for that of any two papers that I know of. The re- 
sult in California turned, really as the result in the entire 
West did, upon the real progressivism of the progressives. 
It was not pique because Johnson was not recognized. No 
man, not Johnson nor Roosevelt, carries the progressives 



228 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

in his pocket. The progressives in the East were Perkins 
progressives who could be delivered. The West thinks for 
itself. Johnson could not deliver California. Johnson 
made very strong speeches for Hughes. The West is really 
progressive. . . . 

Speaking of the election, there are two things I want you 
to bear distinctly in mind, my dear Mr. Cobb. One is 
that the states which the Interior Department deals with 
are the states which elected Mr. Wilson. . . . And the sec- 
ond is that we kept the Mexican situation from blowing up 
in a most critical part of the campaign, which is also due to 
the Secretary of the Interior, damn you ! In fact, next to 
you, I think the Secretary of the Interior is the most impor- 
tant part of this whole show ! Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To R. M. Fitzgerald 

American-Mexican Commission 
Atlantic City, November 12, 1916 

Dear Bob, — I am very glad to get your telegram. I 
know that it took work, judgment, and finesse to bring about 
the result that was obtained in California. What a splen- 
did thing it is to have our state the pivotal state ! The 
eastern papers are attempting to make it appear that the 
state turned toward Wilson because of the slight put upon 
Johnson by Hughes. These people in the East are not 
large enough to understand that the people think for 
themselves out West, and are not governed by little 
personalities, that we don't play "Follow the leader," as 
they do here. The real fact is that Roosevelt undertook to 
deliver the progressives and could not do it in the West. 
Now we must hold all these forward-looking people in line 
with us and make the Democratic party realize the dream 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 229 

that you and I had of it when we were boys, thirty years 
ago, and took part in our first campaign. There is room for 
only two parties in the United States, the liberal and the 
conservative, and ours must be the liberal party. Cordially 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To James K. Moffitt 

Atlantic City, November 12, 1916 

My dear Jim, — It was fine of you to send me that tele- 
gram, and I am not too modest to "allow," as Artemus 
Ward used to say, as how the Interior Department is rather 
stuck up over the result. The Department certainly had 
not been very popular in the West. . . . All of us will be 
taken a bit more seriously now, I guess. I wired Cushing 
and the others who led in the fight and I am going to write 
a note to Benjamin Ide Wheeler, who from the first, be it 
said to his credit, claimed California for Wilson. Wheeler 
is certainly a thoroughbred. I wish I could get your way 
soon and see you all, and rejoice with you. 

I have just received a telegram from Bryan, reading : — 
"Shake. Many thanks. It was great. The West, a 
stone which the builders rejected, has become the head of 
the corner." Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 

Atlantic City, November 14, 1916 

Dear Mr. Wheeler, — I know that you rejoice with all 
of us. You were the first man to tell me that Wilson would 
carry California, and I never believed it as truly as you did, 
but I have taken many occasions lately to say that you were 
a true prophet. And speaking of prophets, what a lot have 



230 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

been unmade ! Did you see that I wanted to bet a hat with 
George Harvey that he could not name four states west of 
the Alleghenies that would go for Hughes ? The truth about 
the thing, as I see it, is that you can't deliver the Western 
man and you can't deliver the true progressive, anyhow. 
The people of the East are in a far more feudal state than 
the people of the West. Here they live by sufferance, by 
favor; they are helpless if they lose their jobs. Out there 
hope is high in their hearts and they feel that there is a fair 
world around them, in which they have another chance. 
The resentment was strong against Roosevelt undertaking 
to turn over his vote. Of course I am glad of Johnson's 
election, as he is a strong, stalwart chap, capable of tremen- 
dous things for good. He will probably be a presidential 
candidate four years from now, and I see no man now who 
can beat him, nor should he be beaten unless we have a 
good deal better material than our run of . . . rank oppor- 
tunists. 

I am working on a treadmill here. Perhaps by the time 
you come on in December I will be able to report something 
accomplished. But oh ! the misery of dealing with people 
who are eternally suspicious and have no sense of good faith ! 

We went with the Millers to the James Roosevelt place 
up at Hyde Park on the Hudson, just before election, and 
had an exquisite time. I put in four or five days campaign- 
ing, and this was the end of my trip. My speeches were 
all made in New York where I thought they might count, 
but the organizations were too perfect for us. 

President Wilson will leave a mere shadow of a party, un- 
less he takes an interest in reorganizing it. He has drawn 
a lot of young men to him who should be tied together, as 
we were in the early Cleveland days. Of course, we must 
have a cause, not merely a slogan. 



AMERICAN AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS 231 

Mrs. Lane is here while I am writing this and she sends 
her love to both you and your wife, as do I. As always, 
cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Roland Cotton Smith 

Sunday, [January 7? 1917] 

My dear Dr. Smith, — I know that you are human enough 
to like appreciation and so I am sending you this word, — 
no more than I feel ! 

Your address of this morning was a bit of real literature. 
It produced the effect you desired without making a bid 
for it. It was as subtle and full of suggestion as Jusserand's 
book on France and the United States. You gave an at- 
mosphere to the old building as an institution, which made 
every one of us feel something more of ennobling standards 
and traditions. You touched emotion. Many an old chap 
there felt called upon suddenly and apologetically to blow 
his nose. And the crowning bit of fine sentiment was ask- 
ing us all to rise, as you read the list of the distinguished 
ones who had worshipped there. You have the art of mak- 
ing men better by not preaching to them. So here is my 
hand in admiration and in gratitude. Sincerely, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To James H. Barry 

San Francisco Star 

Washington, [January 9, 1917] 

My dear Jim, - That card of yours spoke to me so directly 
and warmly from the heart, that it revived in my memory 
all the long years of our friendship, and made me feel that 
the world had been good to me beyond most men, in that 
it had brought a "few friends and their affection tried." 



232 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

These are to be trying years — these next four — and it 
will take courage and rare good sense to keep this old ship 
on her true path. You have a part and so have I. We 
take our turn at the wheel. May God give us strength 
and steadiness ! 

Please give my greetings to your fine boys, and to all the 
old group that are still with you, and know that always I 
hold you in deep affection. Sincerely, 

Franklin K. Lane 



IX 

CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 

1917 

Cabinet Meetings — National Council of Defense — Bernstorff — War 
— Plan for Railroad Consolidation — U-Boat Sinkings Revealed — 
Alaska 

To George W . Lane 

Washington, February 9, 1917 

My dear George, — I am going to write you in confidence 
some of the talks we have at the Cabinet and you may keep 
these letters in case I ever wish to remind myself of what 
transpired. A week ago yesterday, (February 1st), the 
word came that Germany was to turn "mad dog" again, 
and sink all ships going within her war zone. This was 
the question, of course, taken up at the meeting of the 
Cabinet on February 2nd. The President opened by saying 
that this notice was an "astounding surprise." He had 
received no intimation of such a reversal of policy. Indeed, 
Zimmermann, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, had 
within ten days told Girard that such a thing was an "im- 
possibility." At this point Lansing said that he had good 
reason to believe that Bernstorff had the note for fully ten 
days before delivering it, and had held it off because of the 
President's Peace Message to Congress, which had made it 
seem inadvisable to deliver it then. In answer to a question 

233 



234 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

as to which side he wished to see win, the President said 
that he didn't wish to see either side win, — for both had 
been equally indifferent to the rights of neutrals — though 
Germany had been brutal in taking life, and England only 
in taking property. He would like to see the neutrals 
unite. I ventured the expression that to ask them to do 
this would be idle, as they could not afford to join with us 
if it meant the insistence on their rights to the point of war. 
He thought we might coordinate the neutral forces, but was 
persuaded that an effort to do this publicly, as he proposed, 
would put some of the small powers in a delicate position. 
We talked the world situation over. I spoke of the likeli- 
hood of a German-Russian-Japanese alliance as the natural 
thing at the end of the war because they all were nearly in 
the same stage of development. He thought the Russian 
peasant might save the world this m sfortune. The fact 
that Russia had been, but a short time since, on the verge 
of an independent peace with Germany was brought out as 
evidencing the possibility of a break on the Allies' side. 
His conclusion was that nothing should be done now, — 
awaiting the "overt act" by Germany, which would take 
him to Congress to ask for power. 

At the next meeting of the Cabinet on February 6th, 
the main question discussed was whether we should convoy, 
or arm, our merchant ships. Secretary Baker said that 
unless we did our ships would stay in American ports, and 
thus Germany would have us effectively locked up by her 
threat. The St. Louis, of the American line, wanted to go 
out with mail but asked the right to arm and the use of guns 
and gunners. After a long discussion, the decision of the 
President was that we should not convoy because that made 
a double hazard, — this being the report of the Navy, — 
but that ships should be told that they might arm, but that 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 235 

without new power from Congress they should not be fur- 
nished with guns and gunners. 

The President said that he was "passionately" determined 
not to over-step the slightest punctilio of honor in dealing 
with Germany, or interned Germans, or the property of 
Germans. He would not take the interned ships, not even 
though they were being gutted of their machinery. He 
wished an announcement made that all property of Germans 
would be held inviolate, and that interned sailors on mer- 
chant ships could enter the United States. If we are to 
have war we must go in with our hands clean and without 
any basis for criticism against us. The fact that before 
Bernstorff gave the note telling of the new warfare, the ships 
had been dismantled as to their machinery, was not to move 
us to any act that would look like hostility. 

February 10 

Yesterday we talked of the holding of Girard as a hostage. 
Lansing said there was no doubt of it. He thought it an 
act of war in itself. But did not know on what theory it 
was done, except that Germany was doing what she thought 
we would do. Germany evidently was excited over her 
sailors here, fearing that they would be interned, and over 
her ships, fearing that they would be taken. I said that 
it seemed to be established that Germany meant to do 
what she said she would do, and that we might as well act 
on that assumption. The President said that he had always 
believed this, but thought that there were chances of her 
modifying her position, and that he could do nothing, in 
good faith toward Congress, without going before that body. 
He felt that in a few days something would be done that 
would make this necessary. 

So there you are up to date — in a scrappy way. Now 



236 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

don't tell what you know. Ned is flying at Newport News. 
He sent me a telegram saying that the President could go 
as far as he liked, "the bunch" would back him up. Strange 
how warlike young fellows are, especially if they think that 
they are preparing for some usefulness in war. That's the 
militaristic spirit that is bad. Much love to you and 
Frances. Give me good long letters telling me what is in 
the back of that wise old head. 

F. K. 

To George W. Lane 

February 16, [1917] 

My dear George, — That letter and proposed wire were 
received and your spirit is mine — the form of your letter 
could not be improved upon — and you are absolutely 
sound as to policy. 

At the last meeting of the Cabinet, we again urged that 
we should convoy our own ships, but the President said that 
this was not possible without going to Congress, and he was 
not ready to do that now. The Navy people say that to 
convoy would be foolish because it would make a double 
target, but it seems to me the right thing to risk a naval ship 
in the enforcement of our right. 

At our dinner to the President last night he said he was 
not in sympathy with any great preparedness — that Europe 
would be man and money poor by the end of the war. I 
think he is dead wrong in this, and as I am a member of 
the National Council of Defense, I am pushing for every- 
thing possible. This week we have had a meeting of the 
Council every day — the Secretary of War, Navy, Interior, 
Commerce, and Labor — with an Advisory Commission 
consisting of seven business men. We are developing a 
plan for the mobilization of all our national industries and 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 237 

resources so that we may be ready for getting guns, muni- 
tions, trucks, supplies, airplanes, and other material things 
as soon as war comes — if not too soon. It is a great organ- 
ization of industry and resources. I think that I shall urge 
Hoover as the head of the work. His Belgian experience 
has made him the most competent man in this country for 
such work. He has promised to come to me as one of my 
assistants but the other work is the larger, and I can get 
on with a smaller man. He will correlate the industrial 
life of the nation against the day of danger and immediate 
need. France seems to be ahead in this work. The essentials 
are to commandeer all material resources of certain kinds 
(steel, copper, rubber, nickel, etc.) ; then have ready all 
drawings, machines, etc., necessary in advance for all muni- 
tions and supplies ; and know the plant that can produce 
these on a standard basis. 

The Army and Navy are so set and stereotyped and stand- 
pat that I am almost hopeless as to moving them to do the 
wise, large, wholesale job. They are governed by red-tape, 
— worse than any Union. 

The Chief of Staff fell asleep at our meeting to-day — 
Mars and Morpheus in one ! 

To-day's meeting has resulted in nothing, though in Mex- 
ico, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Europe we have trouble. The 
country is growing tired of delay, and without positive leader- 
ship is losing its keenness of conscience and becoming inured 
to insult. Our Ambassador in Berlin is held as a hostage for 
days — our Consuls' wives are stripped naked at the border, 
our ships are sunk, our people killed — and yet we wait and 
wait ! What for I do not know. Germany is winning by her 
bluff, for she has our ships interned in our own harbors. 

Well, dear boy, I'm not a pacifist as you see. Much love, 

Frank 



238 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, February 20, [1917] 

Dear George, — Another Cabinet meeting and no light 
yet on what our policy will be as to Germany. We evidently 
are waiting for the "overt act," which I think Germany will 
not commit. We are all, with the exception of one or two 
pro-Germans, feeling humiliated by the situation, but noth- 
ing can be done. 

McAdoo brought up the matter of shipping being held 
in our ports. It appears that something more than half of 
the normal number of ships has gone out since February 1st, 
and they all seem to be getting over the first scare, because 
Germany is not doing more than her former amount of 
damage. 

We were told of intercepted cables to the Wolfe News 
Agency, in Berlin, in which the American people were rep- 
resented as being against war under any circumstances — 
sympathizing strongly with a neutrality that would keep all 
Americans off the seas. Thus does the Kaiser learn of Amer- 
ican sentiment ! No wonder he sizes us up as cowards ! . . . 

F. K. L. 

To Frank I. Cobb 

Washington, February 21, 1917 

My dear Cobb, — I have told Henry Hall that he should 
come down here and give the story of how Bernstorff handled 
the newspaper men, and thus worked the American people. 
. . . He ought to get out of the newspaper men themselves, 
and he can, the whole atmosphere of the Washington situ- 
ation since Dernberg left, — Bernstorff 's little knot of 
society friends, chiefly women, the dinners that they had, 
his appeals for sympathy, the manner in which he would 
offset whatever the State Department was attempting to get 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 239 

before the American people. He would give away to news- 
paper men news that he got from his own government before 
it got to the State Department. He would give away also 
the news that he got from the State Department before the 
State Department itself gave it out, and he had a regular 
room in which he received these newspaper men, and handed 
them cigars and so on, and carried on a propaganda against 
the policy of the United States while acting as Ambassador 
for Germany, the like of which nobody has carried on since 
Genet ; and worse than his, because it was carried on secretly 
and cunningly. . . . 

Hall will be able to get a ripping good story, I am satisfied, 
— a good two pages on "Modern Diplomacy," which will 
reveal how long-suffering the United States has been. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, February 25, 1917 

My dear George, — On Friday we had one of the most 
animated sessions of the Cabinet that I suppose has ever 
been held under this or any other President. It all arose 
out of a very innocent question of mine as to whether it 
was true that the wives of American Consuls on leaving 
Germany had been stripped naked, given an acid bath to 
detect writing on their flesh, and subjected to other in- 
dignities. Lansing answered that it was true. Then I 
asked Houston about the bread riots in New York, as to 
whether there was shortage of food because of car shortage 
due to vessels not going out with exports. This led to a dis- 
cussion of the great problem which we all had been afraid 
to raise — Why shouldn't we send our ships out with guns 
or convoys ? Daniels said we must not convoy — that 



240 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

would be dangerous. (Think of a Secretary of the Navy 
talking of danger !) The President said that the country 
was not willing that we should take any risks of war. I said 
that I got no such sentiment out of the country, but if the 
country knew that our Consuls' wives had been treated 
so outrageously that there would be no question as to the 
sentiment. This, the President took as a suggestion that 
we should work up a propaganda of hatred against Germany. 
Of course, I said I had no such idea, but that I felt that in 
a Democracy the people were entitled to know the facts. 
McAdoo, Houston, and Redfield joined me. The President 
turned on them bitterly, especially on McAdoo, and re- 
proached all of us with appealing to the spirit of the Code 
Duello. We couldn't get the idea out of his head that we 
were bent on pushing the country into war. Houston 
talked of resigning after the meeting. McAdoo will — 
within a year, I believe. I tried to smooth them down by 
recalling our past experiences with the President. We have 
had to push, and push, and push, to get him to take any for- 
ward step — the Trade Commission, the Tariff Commission. 
He comes out right but he is slower than a glacier — and 
things are mighty disagreeable, whenever anything has to 
be done. 

Now he is being abused by the Republicans for being slow, 
and this will probably help a bit, though it may make him 
more obstinate. He wants no extra session, and the Repub- 
licans fear that he will submit to anything in the way of 
indignity or national humiliation without "getting back," 
so they are standing for an extra session. The President 
believes, I think, that the munitions makers are back of the 
Republican plan. But I doubt this. They simply want 
to have a "say"; and the President wants to be alone and 
unbothered. He probably would not call Cabinet meetings 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 241 

if Congress adjourned. Then I would go to Honolulu, 
where the land problem vexes. 

I don't know whether the President is an internationalist 
or a pacifist, he seems to be very mildly national — his 
patriotism is covered over with a film of philosophic humani- 
tarianism, that certainly doesn't make for "punch" at such 
a time as this. 

My love to you old man, — do write me oftener and tell 
me if you get all my letters. 

F. K. L. 

To George TV. Lane 

Washington, March 6, [1917] 

Well my dear George, the new administration is launched 

— smoothly but not on a smooth sea. The old Con- 
gress went out in' disgrace, talking to death a bill to en- 
able the President to protect Americans on the seas. The 
reactionaries and the progressives combined — Penrose 
and La Follette joined hands to stop all legislation, so 
that the government is without money to carry on its 
work. 

It is unjust to charge the whole thing on the La Follette 
group ; they served to do the trick which the whole Re- 
publican machine wished done. For the Penrose, Lodge 
people would not let any bills through and were glad to get 
La Follette's help. The Democrats fought and died — 
because there was no "previous question" in the Senate 
rules. 

The weather changed for inauguration — Wilson luck 

— and the event went off without accident. To-day, we 
had expected a meeting of the Cabinet to determine what 
we should do in the absence of legislation, but that has gone 
over, — I expect to give the Attorney General a chance to 



242 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

draft an opinion on the armed ship matter. I am for prompt 
action — putting the guns on the ships and convoying, if 
necessary. Much love. 

K. F. 

To Edioard J. Wheeler 
Current Opinion 

Washington, March 15, 1917 

My dear Mr. Wheeler, — I wish that I could be with you 
to honor Mr. Howells. But who are we, to honor him? Is 
he not an institution ? Is he not the Master ? Has he not 
taught for half a century that this new and peculiar man, 
the American, is worth drawing ? Why, for an American 
not to take off his hat to Howells would be to fail in appre- 
ciation of one's self as an object of art — an unlikely, be- 
littling, and soul-destroying sin. 

I do not know whether Howells is a great photographer or 
a great artist ; but this I do know, that I like him because he 
sees through his own eyes, and I like his eyes. If that be 
treason, make the most of it. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, April 1, 1917 

My dear George, — I took your letter and your proposed 
wire as to our going into war and sent them to the President 
as suggestions for his proposed message which in a couple 
of days will come out — what it is to be I don't know — 
excepting in spirit. He is to be for recognizing war and 
taking hold of the situation in such a fashion as will eventu- 
ally lead to an Allies' victory over Germany. But he goes 
unwillingly. The Cabinet is at last a unit. We can stand 
Germany's insolence and murderous policy no longer. 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 243 

Burleson, Gregory, Daniels, and Wilson were the last to 
come over. 

The meetings of the Cabinet lately have been nothing less 
than councils of war. The die is cast — and yet no one has 
seen the message. The President hasn't shown us a line. 
He seems to think that in war the Pacific Coast will not be 
strongly with him. They don't want war to be sure — no 
one does. But they will not suffer further humiliation. 
I sent West for some telegrams telling of the local feeling 
in different States and all said, " Do as the President says." 
Yet none came back that spoke as if they felt that we had 
been outraged or that it was necessary for humanity that 
Germany be brought to a Democracy. There is little pride 
or sense of national dignity in most of our politicians. 

The Council of National Defense is getting ready. I 
yesterday proposed a resolution, which was adopted, that 
our contracts for ships, ammunition, and supplies be made 
upon the basis of a three years' program. We may win in 
two years. If we had the nerve to raise five million men at 
once we could end it in six months. 

The first thing is to let Russia and France have money. 
And the second thing, to see that Russia has munitions, of 
which they are short — depending largely, too largely, upon 
Japan. I shouldn't be surprised if we would operate 
the Russian railroads. And ships, ships ! How we do need 
ships, and there are none in the world. Ships to feed Eng- 
land and to make the Russian machine work. Hinden- 
burg is to turn next toward Petrograd — he is only three 
hundred miles away now. I fear he will succeed. But 
that does not mean the conquest of Russia ! The lovable, 
kindly Russians are not to be conquered, — and it makes 
me rejoice that we are to be with them. 

All sides need aeroplanes — for the war that is perhaps 



244 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

the greatest of all needs ; and there Germany is strongest. 
Ned will go among the first. He is flying alone now and is 
enjoying the risk, — the consciousness of his own skill. 
Anne is very brave about it. 

This is the program as far as we have gone : Navy, to make 
a line across the sea and hunt submarines ; Army, one million 
at once, and as many more as necessary as soon as they can 
be got ready. Financed by income taxes largely. Men and 
capital both drafted. 

I'm deep in the work. Have just appointed a War-Secre- 
tary of my own — an ex-Congressman named Lathrop Brown 
from New York, who is to see that we get mines, etc., at 
work. I wish you were here but the weather would be 
too much for you, I fear. Very hot right now ! 

Sometime I'll tell you how we stopped the strike. It 
was a big piece of work that was blanketed by the 
Supreme Court's decision next day. But we came near to 
having something akin to Civil War. Much love, my dear 
boy. 

F. K. L. 

Grosvenor Clarkson, Director of the Council of National 
Defense, in recording the activities of that body says : — 

" It is, of course, well known that Secretary Lane, as a mem- 
ber of the Council of National Defense, played a dramatic 
and successful part in the settlement of the threatened great 
railroad strike of March, 1917. By resolution of the Council 
of National Defense of March 16, 1917, Secretary Lane 
and Secretary of Labor Wilson, as members of the Council, 
and Daniel Willard, President of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, and Samuel Gompers of the Advisory Commission, 
were designated to represent the government, at the meeting 
in New York with the representatives of the railroad brother- 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 245 

hoods and railroad executives — the meeting that stopped 
the strike." 

To Frank I. Cobb 
New York World 

Washington, April 12, 1917 

My dear Frank, — I have your note and am thoroughly 
in sympathy with it. The great need of France at this 
moment is to get ships to carry the supplies across the water. 
It is a secret, but a fact, that France has 600,000 tons of 
freight in New York and other harbors waiting to ship. I 
am in favor of taking all the German ships under requisition, 
paying for their use eventually, but this is a matter of 
months. Immediately, I think we should take all the 
coastwise ships, or the larger portion of them. The Navy 
colliers and Army transports can be put into the business of 
carrying supplies to France. 

We are to have a meeting of the Council of National De- 
fense to-day, and I am going to take this matter up. I have 
been pushing on it for several weeks. As to the purchasing 
of supplies, I think we ought to protect the Allies, especially 
Russia, but, of course, we cannot touch their present con- 
tracts. . . . 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, April 15, 1917 

My dear George, — I enclose a couple of confidential 
papers that will interest you. The situation is not as happy 
in Russia as it should be. The people are so infatuated with 
their own internal reforms that there is danger of their making 
a separate peace, which would throw the entire strength of 
Germany on the west front, and compel us to go in with mil- 
lions of men where we had thought that a few would suffice. 



246 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

My work on the National Council of Defense lately has 
been dealing with many things, chiefly mobilization of our 
railroads and the securing of new shipping. At my sugges- 
tion to Mr. Willard he called together the leading forty-five 
railroad presidents of the United States, and I addressed 
them upon the necessity of tying together all of the railroads 
within one unit and making a single operating system of the 
250,000 miles. They met the proposition splendidly and 
appointed a committee to effect this. It will require some 
sacrifice on the part of the railroads, and considerable on 
the part of the shippers ; for free time on cars will have to be 
cut down, some passenger trains taken off, and equipment 
allowed to flow freely from one system to the other under 
a single direction, no matter who owns the locomotives or the 
cars. I put it up to them as a test of the efficiency of private 
ownership. 

On the shipping side we are not only going about the task 
of building a thousand wooden ships, under the direction of 
Denman and Goethals, but we are going to take our coastwise 
shipping off, making the railroads carry this freight, and 
put all available ships into the trans-Atlantic business. We 
want, also, to get some steel ships built. The great trouble 
with this is the shortage of plates and the shortage of ship- 
yards. In order to effect this, I expect we will have to post- 
pone the building of some of our large dreadnaughts and 
battle cruisers, which could not be in service for three years 
anyhow. Whether we will succeed in getting the Secretary 
of the Navy to agree to this is a question, but I am going to 
try. 

We, of course, are going to press into service at once the 
German and Austrian ships, such of them as can be 
repaired and will be of use in the freight business, but we 
will not confiscate them. We will deal with them exactly 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 247 

as we will deal with American ships, paying at the end of 
the war whatever their services were worth. This spirit of 
fairness is to animate us throughout the war. Of course 
enemy warships were seized as prizes of war, but there are 
very few of these, and of no considerable value. I do not 
believe they can be of any use. 

England is sending over Mr. Balfour with a very high 
Commission. These gentlemen will arrive here this week, 
and I expect with them Viviani and Joffre, from France. 
We will have intimate talks with them and gain the benefit 
of their experience. I expect Mr. Balfour to make some 
speeches that will put England in a more favorable light, and 
the presence of Joffre will stimulate recruiting in our Army 
and Navy. He is the one real figure who has come out of 
the war so far. 

We are raising seven billions ; three billions to go to the 
Allies, largely for purchases to be made here. Money con- 
tributions pass unanimously, but there is to be trouble over 
our war measures respecting conscription and the raising 
of an adequate army. Some pacifists and other pro-Germans 
are cultivating the idea that none but volunteers should be 
sent to Europe. Some are also saying Germany can have 
peace with us if she stops her submarine warfare. I doubt 
if that line of agitation will be successful before Congress. 
Certainly it will not be successful with the President or the 
Cabinet. We are now very happily united upon following 
every course that will lead to the quickest and most complete 
victory. 

The greatest impending danger is the drive on the east 
front into Russia, possibly the taking of Petrograd, and the 
weakness on the part of the Russians because of so large a 
socialistic element now in control of Russian affairs. We 
offered Russia a commission of railroad men to look over 



248 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

their railroad systems and advise with them as to the best 
means of operating them. At first Russia inclined to wel- 
come such a commission, but later the offer was declined 
because of local feeling. We intend to send a commission 
ourselves to Russia, possibly headed by McAdoo or Root, 
and on this commission we will have a railroad man with ex- 
pert knowledge who can be of some service to them, I hope. 
The Russian and the French governments have ordered 
hundreds of locomotives and tens of thousands of cars in 
this country, a large part of which are ready for shipment, 
but which cannot be shipped because of lack of shipping 
facilities. Affectionately yours, 

F. K. L. 

Grosvenor Clarkson, who was first Secretary and then 
Director of the Council of National Defense, writes in 
February, 1922, this account of the work of the Council : — 

"As early as February 12, 1917, or nearly two months 
before we went into the war, Secretary Lane presented reso- 
lutions at a joint meeting of the Council of National Defense 
and its Advisory Commission, to the effect that the Council 
1 Call a series of conferences with the leading men in each 
industry, fundamentally necessary to the defense of the 
country in the event of war.' The resolutions also proposed 
that the Council at once proceed to confer with those familiar 
with the manner by which foreign governments in the war 
enlisted their industries and, further, that the Council 
should establish a committee to investigate and report upon 
such regulations as to hours and safety of labor as should 
apply to all war labor. 

"Secretary Lane's resolution was referred to the Ad- 
visory Commission, and on February 13, at a joint meeting 
of the Council and Commission, the matter was thoroughly 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 249 

discussed. Out of this resolution grew the famous cooper- 
ative committees of the Advisory Commission. Here was 
the inception of the dollar-a-year man. 

"This organization, set up by the Advisory Commission, 
furnished for the first eight or ten months of our partici- 
pation in the war, almost the only thing in the way of a war 
machine under the government on the civilian or industrial 
side. 

" In the first week of May, 1917, the Council of National 
Defense called to Washington representatives of each state 
in the Union, to confer with the federal government as to the 
common prosecution of the war. The state delegates, con- 
sisting of many Governors and in each case of leading cit- 
izens of the respective commonwealths, were received by the 
six Cabinet officers, forming the Council, in the office of 
Secretary Baker in April. 

"Secretary Lane thought that the most effective way to 
wake the country up out of its dream of security was to tell 
the truth about the submarine losses, the country up to 
that time not having really appreciated what the losses 
amounted to. He said, 'The President is going to address 
the State representatives at the White House, and I am going 
to urge him to cut loose on the submarine losses,' and he 
asked me to prepare a memorandum for him to give to the 
President. This I did. The President, however, apparently 
decided not to go into the subject, and Secretary Lane, with 
a courage that can only be appreciated by those who knew 
the atmosphere of official Washington at that time, decided 
to take the bull by the horns himself, and at the next meeting 
with the representatives with the Council in Secretary 
Baker's office, Secretary Lane . . . cut loose and told the 
actual truth about submarine losses at that time. . . . 
The next morning it was the story of the day in the news- 



250 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

papers and it did as much to arouse the country as a whole 
as to what we were up against as any one thing that occurred 
during this period, save only the President's war message 
itself. 

"Secretary Lane became chairman of the field division 
of the Council of National Defense toward the end of the 
war. This was the body that guided and coordinated the 
work of the 184,000 units of the state, county, community, 
and municipal Councils of Defense, and of those of the 
Woman's Committee of the Council — no doubt the greatest 
organization of the kind that the world has ever known." 



To George W. Lane 

Washington, May 3, 1917 

These are great days. Their significance will not be 
realized for many years. We are forming a close union with 
France and England. The most impressive sight I have ever 
seen was that at Washington's tomb last Sunday. We went 
down on the Mayflower — the French and the English com- 
missions and the members of the Cabinet. Viviani and 
Balfour spoke. Joffre laid a bronze palm upon Washington's 
tomb, then stood up in his soldierly way and stood at salute 
for a minute. Balfour laid a wreath of lilies upon the tomb, 
and leaned over as if in prayer. Above the tomb, for the 
first time, flew the flag of another country than our own, the 
Stars and Stripes, and on either side, the British Jack and 
the French Tricolor. This is a combination of the Democ- 
racies of the world against feudalism and autocracy. 

I heard a story from one of Joffre's aides. Joffre, by the 
way, is the quietest, sweetest, most naive, and babylike in- 
dividual I ever met. All of the women, as well as the men, 
are in love with him. When he met Nancy, at a garden 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 251 

party, he kissed her on both cheeks. Nancy, as you may 
imagine, was ecstatically delighted. This simple, grave, 
kindly soldier sat in his room while the Germans came march- 
ing upon Paris, saying nothing. Every few minutes an aide 
would come in and move the French markers back upon the 
map, and the German markers forward, toward Paris. Day 
after day he saw this advance, but said nothing. At last 
when they came to the valley of the Marne, an aide came in 
and marked the map, showing that the Germans were within 
thirty miles of Paris. Then Joffre quietly said, "This thing 
has gone far enough," and taking up a pad of paper he called 
to his troops to stand fast and die upon the Marne, if neces- 
sary, to save France. There is nothing finer than this in 
history. 

Joffre has a skin like a baby. He has the utmost frank- 
ness and simplicity of speech. When McAdoo asked him 
at the White House if the present drive was satisfactory, he 
said in the most innocent way, "I am not there." Viviani, 
who is the head of the French Commission, is as jealous as 
a prima donna, terribly jealous of Joffre, (which makes 
Joffre feel most uncomfortable) because, of course, Joffre is 
the hero of the Marne. 

I spoke at the Belasco Theatre the other day for the 
benefit of the French war relief fund, introducing Ambas- 
sador Herrick and the lecturer, a young Frenchman. Joffre 
and Viviani were in a box. Every mention of the name 
of Joffre brought the people to their feet. Yesterday I 
spoke again at a meeting of the State Councils of De- 
fense and I enclose you what the New York Post had to 
say. 

Last night I dined with Balfour. I have seen quite a 
little of him. He is sixty-nine years old and stands about 
six feet two. He is a perfect type of the aristocratic English- 



252 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

man, with a charming smile. His real heart is in the study 
of philosophy. Anne sat next to him at dinner and he told 
her that he believed in a personal God, personal identity 
after death, and answer to prayer, which is a remarkable 
statement of faith for one who has lived through our scien- 
tific age. I think at bottom he is a mystic. 

On all sides they are frank in telling of their distress. We 
did not come in a minute too soon. England and France, 
I believe, were gone if we had not come in. It delights me 
to see how much sympathy there is with England as well as 
with France. The Irish alone seem to be unreconciled with 
England as our ally. 

Ned got your letter, and I suppose in time will answer it, 
I had the question put to me by Baker yesterday as to 
whether I wished him to go to the other side, and I had to 
say frankly that I did. It was to me the most momentous 
decision that I have made in the war. He has passed his 
final test, and I hope that he will get his commission in a 
few days. 

To-night we give a dinner to the Canadians, Sir George 
Foster, the acting Premier, and Sir Joseph Polk, the Under 
Secretary of External Affairs, who, by the way, was born in 
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and says he heard 
our father preach. 

The country's crops are going to be short, I fear, and we 
have had little rain. Ships and grain — these are the two 
things that we must get. Ships, to carry our grain and our 
locomotives and rails, and grain to keep the fighters alive. 
The U-boats are destroying twice as much as the produc- 
ing tonnage of the world. We need every bushel that 
California can produce. With much love, affectionately 
yours, 

F. K. L. 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 253 

To Frank I. Cobb 

New York World 

Washington, May 5, 1917 

My dear Cobb, — I had a long talk with Hoover yesterday. 
He tells me that the U-boat situation is really worse than I 
stated it. There is no question but that the actual sink- 
ings amounted to more than 300,000 tons in a week, and if 
we add those put out of business by mines, they will exceed 
400,000 tons. The French are absolutely desperate. One 
of the French ministers told Hoover that they had fixed on 
the first of November as their last day, if the United States 
had not come in. Admiral Chocheprat told me, with tears 
in his eyes, three nights ago, that they felt themselves help- 
less. They were absolutely at the mercy of the submarines 
because of their lack of destroyers, and they had feared we 
were preparing to defend our own shores rather than fight 
across the water. I know that the latter has been the policy 
of the heads of the Navy Department. 

Do not, I beg of you, minimize the immediate danger. 
This is the time to defend the United States ; and the United 
States is woefully indifferent to its dangers and to the needs 
of the situation. We have been carrying on a ship-building 
program with reference to conditions after the war. It is 
only within ten days that we have realized that the end of 
the war will be one of defeat unless we build twice as fast as 
we proposed to build. You know that I am not pessimistic. 
It is not my habit to look upon the gloomy side of things. It 
is no kindness to the American people or to France or Eng- 
land to give them words of good cheer now. This war is 
right at this minute a challenge to every particle of brains 
and inventive skill that we have got. 

Please treat this as entirely confidential. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



254 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

May 8 

The only dissention in the Council is over the use that 
will be made of Hoover. Houston, I think, is rather making 
a, mistake, though it may work out all right. I hope it will. 

Don't "bat" us; we are a nervous lot right now. . . . 

"Lane was among the first to grasp the bigness of the 
danger to the allied cause," James S. Harlan says, "in Ger- 
many's underwater attack on the merchant marine of the 
world. He also realized the magnitude of the task of frus- 
trating the new peril and the need of prompt measures to 
save the situation. Lane had no anxieties or hesitations in 
his personal contact with big men ; but he had a genuine 
fear of small men when big things were doing. And so in 
this great emergency he naturally thought of Schwab. How 
well I recall the fine force and vigor in his expression when, 
rising from his chair and standing with clenched fist pointed 
at me, he said in substance : — ' The President ought to send 
for Schwab and hand him a treasury warrant for a billion 
dollars and set him to work building ships, with no govern- 
ment inspectors or supervisors or accountants or auditors 
or other red tape to bother him. Let the President just put 
it up to Schwab's patriotism and put Schwab on his honor. 
Nothing more is needed. Schwab will do the job.' 

'This was a full year before Schwab was called down to 
Washington to talk over the question of building ships." 



To Will Irwin 
Paris, France 

Washington, July 21, 1917 

My dear Will, — I have just received your letter. Thank 
you very much for what you say of my speech. I am doing 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 255 

my damndest to keep things going here but it is awfully hard 
work, because the minute my head raises above the water 
some neighboring ship plugs it. 

I think you are dead right in staying with the Post. The 
feeling here is that we are not getting real facts regarding 
the desperateness of the U-boat situation. We need to be 
told facts in order to have our minds challenged. We are 
not cowards, and J hope you will give us realistic pictures of 
just what is happening if you can. . . . 

My boy is the youngest lieutenant in the Army — nine- 
teen. He goes next week to Illinois as an instructor in avia- 
tion, and I suppose in a little while when he gets the 
machines, he will be crossing over. 

With warm affection, my dear Will. Always yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Robert Lansing 
Secretary of State 

Beverly, Massachusetts. [August, 1917] 

My dear Lansing, — I had lunch yesterday with Colonel 
House who asked me what I thought should be done as to 
the Pope's appeal for peace. I told him I thought it should 
be taken seriously. He agreed and asked what the President 
should say. I answered that, inasmuch as all the evidence 
pointed to the conclusion that the German Centerists and 
Austria were responsible for this appeal, that we could not 
afford to have them feel that we were for a policy of annihila- 
tion, — for this would be playing the War Party's game and 
would place the burden on us of continuing the war. And 
this we could neither afford [to do] at home or abroad. 
This opportunity should be seized, I said, to make plain not 
so much our terms of peace as the things in Germany that 
seemed to make peace difficult, — Germany's attitude to- 



256 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

ward the world, the spirit against which we are fighting. 
That we wished peace ; that we had been patient to the limit ; 
that we had come in in the hope that we could destroy the 
idea in the German mind that it could impose its authority 
and system, by force, upon an unwilling world ; that we were 
not opposed to talking peace, provided, at the outset, and as 
a sine qua non, the Central Powers would assume that Govern- 
ment by the Soldier was not a possibility in the 20th century. 

The Colonel said that he had written the President to 
this same effect. That he had written you, or not, he did 
not say. So I am telling you the Colonel's view for your 
own benefit. He thought that the Allies would strongly insist 
upon concerted action, putting aside the Pope's appeal, and 
that this had to be resisted, for we should play our own game. 

I find all I meet here strong for the war, but of course I 
only meet the high-spirited. There is much feeling that we 
are going about it too mechanically, with too little emotion 
and passion. ... As always, 

Lane 

Toward the middle of August, Lane started for Mount 
Desert to inspect the proposed National Park created there 
through the public-spirited devotion of George B. Dorr. 
This northern trip was taken to decide whether he would 
accept, as Secretary of the Interior, this addition to the 
National Parks. Two years later in writing to Senator 
Myers, Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, of 
this National Park, the only one east of the Mississippi, 
Lane said, "The name Lafayette is substituted for that 
of Mount Desert, the name proposed by the former bill, 
and I consider it singularly appropriate that the name of 
Lafayette should be commemorated by these splendid 
mountains facing on the sea, on what was once a corner of 




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CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 257 

Old France, and with it the early friendship of the two 
nations which are so closely allied in the present war." 



To Henry Lane Eno 

Bar Harbor, Maine 

Washington, Saturday, [September 2, 1917] 

There are not many weeks in a man's life of which he can 
say that one was without a flaw, that it could not have been 
improved upon in company, comfort, or surroundings. And 
all these things, my dear Mr. Eno, I can affirm of the days 
spent with you. I have a better opinion of my fellows and 
of my country because of them. Perhaps, after all, that is 
as complete a test as any other. As I look back I think of 
but one thing that gives occasion for regret — we had too 
few good, mind-stretching talks, you, Dorr, and myself. But 
those we had were certainly not about affairs of small con- 
cern. We indulged ourselves as social philosophers, psy- 
chologists, war-makers, and international statesmen. The 
world was ours, and more — the worlds beyond. To do 
things worth while by day, and to dream things worth while 
by night, and to believe that both are worth while, that 
is the perfect life. If one can't get to Heaven by following 
that course, then are we lost. 

I am sending a line to Dorr, noble, unselfish, high-spirited, 

broad-minded gentleman that he is. . . . Sincerely and 

heartily yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George Dorr, 

Bar Harbor, Maine 

Washington, [September 2, 1917] 

My dear Mr. Dorr, — You do not know what good you 
did my tired politics-soaked soul by showing me, under such 



258 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

happy conditions, the beauties and the possibilities of your 
island. And I came to know two men at least, whose heads 
and hearts were working for a less pudgy and flat-footed 
world. . . . To have enthusiasm is to beat the Devil. So I 
have you down in my Saints' book. 

You know a man in politics is always looking about for 
some place to which he can retire when the whirligig brings 
in another group of more popular patriots. Now I can 
frankly say that if I could have an extended term of exile 
on your island with you and your friends, I would feel recon- 
ciled to banishment from politics for life, provided however 
(I must say this for conscience' sake) that we had time and 
money to make the Park what it should be — a demonstra- 
tion school for the American to show how much he can add 
to the beauty of Nature. 

A wilderness, no matter how impressive and beautiful, 
does not satisfy this soul of mine, (if I have that kind of 
thing). It is a challenge to man. It says, "Master me! 
Put me to use! Make me something more than I am." 
So what you have done in the Park — the Spring House and 
the Arts Building, the cliff trails and the opened woods, show 
how much may be added by the love and thought of man. 

May the Gods be good to you, the God of Mammon im- 
mediately, that your dreams may come true, and that you 
may give to others the pleasure you gave to yours sincerely, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, September 21, 1917 

My dear Mr. President, — It will interest you to know 
that the Commission which I sent up this year to Alaska to 
look into the Alaskan Railroad matters has just returned. 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 259 

The engineer on this Commission was Mr. Wendt, who was 
formerly Chief Engineer of the Pittsburg and Lake Erie 
Railroad, and who is now in charge of the appraisal of east- 
ern roads under the Interstate Commerce Commission. He 
tells me that our Alaskan road could not have been built 
for less money if handled by a private concern; that he 
has never seen any railroad camps where the men were pro- 
vided with as good food and where there was such care 
taken of their health. They have had no smallpox and but 
one case of typhoid fever. No liquor is allowed on the line 
of the road. The road in his judgment has followed the 
best possible location. Our hospitals are well run. The com- 
pensation plan adopted for injuries is satisfactory to the men. 
I have directed that all possible speed be made in connect- 
ing the Matanuska coal fields with Seward. This involves 
the heaviest construction that we will have to undertake, 
which is along Turnagain Arm, but by the middle of next 
year, no strikes intervening, and transportation for supplies 
being available, this part of the work should be done. 
Faithfully and cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

In Lane's Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 
dated November 20, 1919, he writes of the Alaskan rail- 
road enterprise : — "One of the first recommendations made 
by me in my report of seven years ago was that the Govern- 
ment build a railroad from Seward to Fairbanks in Alaska. 
Five years ago you intrusted to me the direction of this 
work. The road is now more than two-thirds built and 
Congress at this session after exhaustively examining into 
the work has authorized an additional appropriation suffi- 
cient for its completion. The showing made before Congress 
was that the road had been built without graft ; every dollar 



260 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

has gone into actual work or material. It has been built 
without giving profits to any large contractors, for it has been 
constructed entirely by small contractors or by day's labor. 
It has been built without touch of politics ; every man on the 
road has been chosen exclusively for ability and experience." 

This memorandum touching the early history of Alaska 
was found in Lane's files. 



Manuscript Note 

Washington, December 29, 1911 

Last night I dined with Charles Henry Butler, reporter 
for the Supreme Court and a son of William Allen Butler, 
for so long a leader of the New York bar. 

In the course of the evening Mr. Charles Glover, Pres- 
ident of the Riggs National Bank, told me this bit of history. 
That when he was a boy, in the bank one day Mr. Cochran 
came to him and handed him two warrants upon the United 
States Treasury, one for $1,400,000. and the other for 
$5,800,000. He said, "Put those in the safe." Mr. Glover 
did so, and they remained there for a week, when they were 
sent to New York. Mr. Glover said "These warrants were 
the payment of Russia for the Territory of Alaska. Why 
were there two warrants? I never knew until some years 
later, when I learned the story from Senator Dawes, who 
said that prior to the war, there had been some negotiations 
between the United States and Russia for the purchase of 
Alaska, and the price of $1,400,000. was agreed upon. In fact 
this was the amount that Russia asked for this great terri- 
tory, which was regarded as nothing more than a barren 
field of ice. 

"During the war the matter lay dormant. We had more 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 261 

territory than we could take care of. When England, how- 
ever, began to manifest her friendly disposition toward the 
Confederacy, and we learned from Europe that England and 
France were carrying on negotiations for the recognition of 
the Southern States, and possibly of some manifestation by 
their fleets against the blockade wh"ch we had instituted, 
(and which they claimed was not effective and merely a 
paper blockade), we looked about for a friend, and Russia 
was the only European country upon whose friendship we 
could rely. Thereupon Secretary Seward secured from 
Russia a demonstration, in American ports, of Russian 
friendship. Her ships of war sailed to both of our coasts, the 
Atlantic and Pacific, with the understanding that the expense 
of this demonstration should be met by the United States, 
out of the contingent fund. It was to be a secret matter. 
"The war came to a close, and immediately thereafter 
Lincoln was assassinated and the administration changed. 
It was no longer possible to pay for this demonstration, 
secretly, under the excuse of war, but a way was found for 
paying Russia through the purchase of Alaska. The warrant 
for $1,400,000. was the warrant for the purchase of Alaska, 
the warrant for $5,800,000. was for Russia's expenses in her 
naval demonstration in our behalf, but history only knows 
the fact that the United States paid $7,200,000. for this 
territory, which is now demonstrated to be one of the richest 
portions of the earth in mineral deposits." 



To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, November 3, 1917 

My dear Mr. President, — On April 7, 1917, the Council 
of National Defense adopted a report, submitted by the 



262 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Chairman of the Executive Committee on Labor of the Ad- 
visory Commission of the Council, urging that no change in 
existing standards be made during the war, by either em- 
ployers or employees, except with the approval of the Council 
of National Defense. . . . 

The next step for producing efficiency must be no strikes. 

The annual convention of the American Federation of 
Labor, consisting of international unions, will be held at 
Buffalo on November 12th. I would urge that about thirty 
executives of the unions, which more directly control essen- 
tial war production, be invited to confer with you prior to 
that date, to determine on a policy which will prevent the 
constant interruption of production for war purposes. The 
Commissioners of Conciliation of the Department of Labor 
and the President's Commission have a wonderful record 
of accomplishments for settling strikes after they have oc- 
curred. Organized labor should give the Government the 
opportunity to adjust controversies before strikes occur. 

At this conference it could safely be made plain that for 
the war, employers would agree not to object to the peaceable 
extension of trade unionism ; that they would make no 
efforts to "open" a "closed shop" ; that they would submit 
all controversies concerning standards, including wages and 
lockouts, to any official body on which they have equal repre- 
sentation with labor, and would abide by its decisions ; 
that they would adhere strictly to health and safety laws, 
and laws concerning woman and child labor ; that they would 
not lower prices now in force for piece work, except by 
Government direction; that if a union in a "closed" shop 
after due notice was unable to furnish sufficient workers, 
any non-union employees taken on would be the first to be 
dismissed on the contraction of business, and the shop re- 
stored to its previous "closed" status; that the only barrier 



CABINET TALK AND WAR PLANS 263 

in the way of steady production is the unwillingness of the 
unions to uphold the proposition of settlement before a 
strike, instead of after a strike. 

The imminence of this convention seems to me to make 
some step necessary at this time. I would take the matter 
up with Secretary Wilson were he here, and have sent a 
copy of this letter to him. You undoubtedly can put an 
end to this most serious situation by calling on the inter- 
national labor leaders to take a stand that will not be so 
radical as that taken in England, and yet will insure to the 
men good wages and good conditions, and make sure that 
our industry will not be paralyzed. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To J. O'H. Cosgrave 
New York World 

Washington, December 21, 1917 

My dear Jack, — My spirit does not permit me to give you 
an interview on the moral benefits of the war. This would 
be sheer camouflage. Of course, we will get some good out 
of it, and we will learn some efficiency — if that is a moral 
benefit — and a purer sense of nationalism. But the war 
will degrade us. That is the plain fact, make sheer brutes 
out of us, because we will have to descend to the methods 
that the Germans employ. 

So you must go somewhere else for your uplift stuff. 

Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 

1918 

Notes on Cabinet Meetings — School Gardens — A Democracy Lacks 
Foresight — Use of National Resources — Washington in War-time — 
The Sacrifice of War — Farms for Soldiers 

Notes on Cabinet Meetings 
Found in Lane's Files 

February 25, 1918 

As I entered the building this morning Dr. Parsons x met 
me. I asked how the cyanide plant was getting on. His 
reply was to ask if he might request the War Department 
to allow us to make the contract — that he could have the 
whole thing done in two days. This is where we are at the 
end of more than six months of effort. It is hopeless ! 
We find the process, everything ! — but cannot get the 
contract, through the intricate, infinite fault-findings and 
negligence of the War Department. 

Manning l came to see me to say that he expected, after 
the Overman bill was passed, that the President would take 
over the gas work — order it into the War Department. 
He had been asked twice if he could be tempted by a uni- 
form into that Department, and had said that he was freer 
as a civilian, — had planned the work and gathered the force 
as a civilian, and would not leave the Department. He 

1 Of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines. 

264 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 265 

felt damned sore and indignant, that a work so well done 
should be the subject of envy, and possibly be made less 
effective and useful. . . . 

Everit Macy lunched with me and told me the sad story 
of the mishandling of labor affairs by the Shipping Board. 
He had gone to the Pacific Coast and with his colleagues, 
Coolidge and others, made an agreement with the ship- 
building trades. Five dollars and twenty-five cents for 
machinists, etc. In Seattle, however, because of one firm's 
bidding for labor, he felt that there would have to come a 
strike before this schedule would be accepted. Before he 
got back the threatened strike came, and then the demand 
of the men for a ten per cent bonus was acceded to, upset- 
ting all other settlements in San Francisco, Portland, Los 
Angeles, etc. Result, ten per cent gain everywhere. And 
now the Eastern and Southern men ask the Pacific scale, and 
he can't see how it can be avoided, nor can I. They will 
have to standardize all wages. 

Poor chap, his advice was scorned, for he protested against 
the bonus being given to Seattle, and as he said, "If it had 
not been war-time I would have resigned." To increase 
the men in the South, to this unprecedented scale, will not 
get more ships, he fears, but less, for they will not work if 
they have wages in four days, equal to seven days' needs. 
I advised for standardization. He said the Navy wouldn't 
hear of it, as it would demoralize their yards. . . . 

Politics, politics, curse of the country ! It has gotten 
into the whole war program. Hoover and McAdoo are at 
swords drawn. Hoover had a cable signed by the three 
Premiers, George, Clemenceau, and Orlando, crying for 
wheat and charging us with not keeping our word — and 
starvation threatening all three countries — in fact, almost 
sure, because we have not been able to get the wheat to the 



266 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

ships; and with starvation will come revolution, if it gets 
bad enough. ... I asked Hoover about this on Sunday 
night, . . . and he said that a list of eight hundred cars 
had been on McAdoo's desk for a week. . . . 

(McChord said on the bench x to-day that he thought 
Hoover seventy-five per cent right.) 

March 1, [1918] 
Yesterday, at Cabinet meeting, we had the first real talk 
on the war in weeks, yes, in months ! Burleson brought 
up the matter of Russia, . . . would we support Japan in 
taking Siberia, or even Vladivostock ? Should we join 
Japan actively — in force? 

The President said "No," for the very practical reason 
that we had no ships. We had difficulty in providing for 
our men in France and for our Allies, (the President never 
uses this word, saying that we are not "allies"). How 
hopeless it would be to carry everything seven or eight thou- 
sand miles — not only men and munitions, but food ! — for 
Japan has none to spare, and none we could eat. Her men 
feed on rice and smoked fish, and she raises nothing we 
would want. Nor could the country support us. So there 
was an end of talking of an American force in Siberia ! Yes, 
we were needed — perhaps as a guarantee of good faith on 
Japan's part that she would not go too far, nor stay too 
long. But we would not do it. And besides, Russia would 
not like it, therefore we must keep hands off and let Japan 
take the blame and the responsibility. 

The question is not simple, for Russia will say that we 
threw her to Japan, and possibly she would rush into Ger- 
many's arms as the lesser of evils. My single word of cau- 
tion was to so act that Russia, when she "came back," 

1 The Interstate Commerce Commission. 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 267 

should not hate us, for there was our new land for develop- 
ment — Siberia — and we should have front place at that 
table, if we did not let our fears and our hatred and our eon- 
tempt get away with us now. 

Daniels whispered to-day that Russia had five fast cruisers 
in the Baltic, which could raid the Atlantic and put our ships 
off the sea. He had wired Sims to see if they couldn't be 
sunk. I hope it is not too late ; surely England must have 
done something on so important a matter, though she is 
slow in thinking. And how is anyone to get there with the 
Baltic full of submarines and mines ! The thought is horri- 
ble, the possibilities ! We certainly have made a bad fist 
of things Russian from the start. They have deserted us 
because they were trying to drive the cart ahead of the 
horse, economical revolution before political revolution, 
socialism ahead of liberty with law. And they know we are 
capitalistic, because we do not approve of socialism by force. 

March 12, [1918] 
Nothing talked of at Cabinet that would interest a nation, 
a family, or a child. No talk of the war. No talk of Russia 
or Japan. Talk by McAdoo about some bills in Congress, 
by the President about giving the veterans of the Spanish 
war leave, with pay, to attend their annual encampment. 
And he treated this seriously as if it were a matter of first 
importance ! No word from Baker nor mention of his mis- 
sion or his doings. . . . 

To Franklin K. Lane, Jr. 

Somewhere in France 

Washington, February 15, 1918 

My dear boy, — ... We are anxiously awaiting some 
word telling where you are, what you are doing, and how you 



268 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

got on in your trip. I thought your cablegram was a model 
of condensation, quite like that of Caesar, "Veni, vidi, 
vici. . . . 

Sergeant Empey has just left the office with a letter to 
the Secretary of War, asking that he be given a commission. 
He has been lecturing among the cantonments and wants 
to get back to France. . . . He says that the boys in the 
cantonments are anxious to go across, and that they are 
beginning to criticise us because they do not have their 
chance. But they will all get there soon enough for them. 
Our national problem is to get ships to carry them, and to 
carry the food for the Allies. . . . We have undertaken 
to supply a certain amount of food to the other side, and our 
contract, so far, has not been fulfilled. During December 
and January, however, this was, of course, due to railroad 
conditions. 

You are a long way off, but you must not visualize the 
distance. Nothing so breaks the spirit as to dwell upon un- 
fortunate facts. Some one day or another you had to leave 
the nest, and this is your day for flying. Wherever you 
are, with people whose language you understand only im- 
perfectly, with a civilization that is somewhat strange, and 
under conditions that often-times will be trying, don't adopt 
the usual attitude of the American in a foreign country and 
wonder "why the damn fools don't speak English." No 
doubt some of the French will pity you because of your 
delinquency in their language. 

Another thing that differentiates us from other people 
is our lavishness in expenditure, and in what appears to 
us to be their "nearness.". . . From these same thrifty 
French have come great things. They have always been 
great soldiers ; they have led the world in the arts, especially 
in poetry, painting and fiction — perhaps, too, I should 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 269 

add architecture. So that men who are careful of their 
pennies are not necessarily small in their minds. . . . 

I have less doubt, however, of your ability to get on with 
the Frenchman than I have with the Englishman. . . . 
You will have difficulty — at least I should — in under- 
standing the rather heavy, sober, non-humorous English- 
man. . . . He is always a self-important gentleman who 
regards England as having spoken pretty much the last 
word in all things, and who will abuse his own country, his 
countrymen, and institutions, frankly and with abandon, 
but will allow no one else this liberty. He is not a "quitter" 
though, and he has done his bit through the centuries for 
the making of the world. 

. . . See as many people as you can, present all your 
letters, accept invitations. Remember that while you are 
there and we miss you, we are not spending our time in 
moping. Every night we go to dinner and we chatter with 
the rest of the magpies, as if the world were free from suffer- 
ing. Last night I talked with Paderewski for an hour on the 
sorrows of Poland, and it was one long tale of horror. . . . 

To-day the Russians are calling their people back to arms 

to stop the oncoming Germans. Foolish, foolish idealists 

who believed that they could establish what they call an 

economic democracy, without being willing to support their 

ideal in modern fashion by force. The best of things can 

not live unless they are fought for, and while I do not think 

that their socialism was the best of anything, it was their 

dream. . . . With much love, my dear boy, your 

Dad 

To George TV. Lane 

February 16, 1918 

My dear George, — . . . Things are going much better 

with the War Department. My expectation is that this war 



270 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

will resolve itself into three things, in this order : — ships 
for food, aeroplanes, big guns. We must, as you know, do 
all that we can to keep up the morale of our own people. 
There is a considerable percentage of pacifists, and of the 
weak-hearted ones, who would like to have a peace now upon 
any terms, but the treatment that Russia is receiving, after 
she had thrown down her arms, indicates what may be ex- 
pected by any nation that quits now. 

. . . The prospects for democratization of Germany is 
not as good as it was a year ago, when we came in, because 
of their success in arms due to Russia's debacle. The people 
will not overthrow a government which is successful, nor 
will they be inclined to desert a system which adds to Ger- 
many's glory. It is a fight, a long fight, a fight of tremen- 
dous sacrifice, that we are in for. I said a year ago that it 
would be two years. Then I thought that Russia would 
put up some kind of front. Now I say two years from this 
time and possibly a great deal longer. Lord Northcliffe 
thinks four or six or eight years. 

Ned writes me that things are very gloomy and glum in 
England and in Ireland, where he has been. He was out in 
an air raid, in several of them, in London, not up in the air, 
but from the ground could see no trace of the airships that 
were dropping bombs on the town. The Germans seem to 
have discovered some way by which they can tell where 
they are without being able to see the lights of the city, for 
now they have bombarded Paris when it was protected, on 
a dark night, by a blanket of fog, and London also under 
the same conditions. The compass is not much good, the 
deviations are so great. It may be that the clever Huns 
have found some way of piloting themselves surely. 

We are starting two campaigns through the Bureau of 
Education which may interest you. One is for school gar- 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 271 

dens. To have the children organized, each one to plant 
a garden. The plan is to raise vegetables which will save 
things that can be sent over to the armies, and also give the 
children a sense of being in the war. Another thing we are 
trying to do is educate the foreign born and the native born 
who cannot read or write English. If you are interested 
in either of these two things we will send you literature, and 
you can name your own district, and we will put you at 
work. . . . 

Well, my dear fellow, I long very much for the sun and 
the sweetness of California these days, but I could not en- 
joy myself if I were there, because I am at such tension that 
I must be doing every day. Do write me often, even though 
I do not answer. Affectionately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Albert Shaw 

Review of Reviews 

Washington, March 7, 1918 

My dear Dr. Shaw, — I have your letter of March 4th. 
The thing that a democracy is short on is foresight. We do 
not have enough men like the General Staff in Germany 
who can think ten and twenty years ahead. We are too 
much embedded and incrusted in the things that flow 
around us during the day, and think too little of the future. 
For five, long, weary years, I have been agitating for the 
use of the water powers of the United States. We estimate 
the unused power in tens and tens of millions of horse-power. 
Right in New York you have in the Erie Canal 150,000 
horse-power, and on the Niagara river you have probably a 
million unused. If you had a great dam across the river 
below the rapids we should have water power in chains, like 
fire horses in their stalls, that could be brought out at the 



272 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

time of need. But we are thinking in large figures these 
days, and while we used to be afraid to ask for a few hun- 
dred thousand dollars we now talk in millions, and some day 
we may realize that to put the cost of a week's war into 
power plants in the United States would be money well 
invested. . . . 

We have no law under which private capital feels justi- 
fied in investing a dollar in a water power plant where public 
lands are involved, because the permit granted is revokable 
at the pleasure of the Secretary of the Interior, and capital 
does not enjoy the prospect of making its future returns 
dependent upon the good digestion of the Secretary. But 
if we get this bill, which I enclose, through, we will be able 
to handle the powers on all streams on the public lands and 
forests and on all navigable waters, and give assurance to 
capital that it will be well taken care of if it makes the in- 
vestment. . . . 

I am greatly pleased at the kind things you say about me. 
The longer I am in office the more of an appetite I have for 
such food. Hoover x can only commit one fatal mistake — 
to declare a taffyless day. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Edward J. Wheeler on February 1, 1917, he had 
written : — 

"It is an outrage that we should have a total of nearly 
six million acres of land withdrawn for oil, three million 
for phosphates, and one million for water power sites, potash, 
etc., and allow session after session of Congress to pass with- 
out producing any legislation that will sensibly open these 
reserves to development. The extreme conservationists, 
who are really for holding the lands indefinitely in the Fed- 

1 Hoover at this time was Food Administrator, 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 273 

eral Government and unopened, and the extreme anti- 
conservationists, who are for turning all the public lands 
over to the States, have stood for years against a rational 
system of national development." 

Although a great part of the energy of the Department 
of the Interior was, of necessity, diverted to forward war 
enterprises and to supply war necessities — chemical, metal- 
lurgical, statistical — Lane steadily pressed forward the 
conduct of the normal activities of the department. In 
his report for the year 1918, he briefly summarizes this 
work, — "The distribution, survey, and classification of 
our national lands; the care of the Indian wards of the 
Nation, their education, and the development of their vast 
estate; the carrying forward of our reclamation projects; 
the awarding and issuance of patents to inventors; the 
construction of the Alaskan railroad and the supervision of 
the Territorial affairs of Alaska and Hawaii ; the payment 
of pensions to Army and Navy veterans and their depend- 
ents ; the promotion of education ; the custody and manage- 
ment of the national parks; the conservation of the lives 
of those who work in mines, and the study and guidance of 
the mining and metallurgical industries." 



To Walter H. Page 

Washington, March 16, 1918 

My dear Mr. Ambassador, — I am the poorest of all 
living correspondents, in fact, I am a dead correspondent. 
I do not function. If it had not been so I would long since 
have answered your notes, which have been in my basket, 
but I have had no time for any personal correspondence, 
much as I delight in it, for I have a very old-fashioned love 



274 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

for writing from day to day what pops into my mind, con- 
tradicting each day what I said the day before, and gather- 
ing from my friends their impressions and their spirit the 
same way. For the first time in three months I have leisure 
enough ... to acknowledge a few of the accumulated per- 
sonal letters. 

Let me give you a glimpse of my day, just to compare it 
with your own and by way of contrasting life in two different 
spheres and on different sides of the ocean. I get to my 
office at nine in the morning and my day is broken up into 
fifteen-minute periods, during which I see either my own 
people or others. I really write none of my own letters, 1 
simply telling my secretaries whether the answer should be 
"yes" or "no." I lunch at my own desk and generally 
with my wife, who has charge of our war work in the De- 
partment. We have over thirteen hundred men who have 
gone out of this Department into the Army. . . . My 
day is broken into by Cabinet meeting twice a week, meet- 
ing of the Council of National Defense twice a week, and 
latterly with long sessions every afternoon over the ques- 
tion of what railroad wages should be. 

My office is a sort of place of last resort for those who are 
discouraged elsewhere, for Washington is no longer a city 
of set routine and fixed habit. It is at last the center of 
the nation. New York is no longer even the financial cen- 
ter. The newspapers are edited from here. Society centers 
here. All the industrial chiefs of the nation spend most of 
their time here. It is easier to find a great cattle king or 
automobile manufacturer or a railroad president or a banker 
at the Shoreham or the Willard Hotel than it is to find him 
in his own town. The surprising thing is that these great 
men who have made our country do not loom so large when 

1 This referred to routine letters. 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 275 

brought to Washington and put to work. . . . Every day 
I find some man of many millions who has been here for 
months and whose movements used to be a matter of news- 
paper notoriety, but I did not know, even, that he was here. 
I leave my office at seven o'clock, not having been out of 
it during the day except for a Cabinet or Council meeting, 
take a wink of sleep, change my clothes and go to a dinner, 
for this, as you will remember, is the one form of entertain- 
ment that Washington has permitted itself in the war. The 
dinners are Hooverized, — three courses, little or no wheat, 
little or no meat, little or no sugar, a few serve wine. And 
round the table will always be found men in foreign uni- 
forms, or some missionary from some great power who comes 
begging for boats or food. These dinners used to be places 
of great gossip, and chiefly anti-administration gossip, but 
the spirit of the people is one of unequaled loyalty. The 
Republicans are as glad to have Wilson as their President 
as are the Democrats, I think sometimes a little more glad, 
because many of the Democrats are disgruntled over pat- 
ronage or something else. The women are ferocious in 
their hunt for spies, and their criticism is against what they 
think is indifference to this danger. Boys appear at these 
dinners in the great houses, because of their uniforms, who 
would never have been permitted even to come to the 
front door in other days, for all are potential heroes. Every 
woman carries her knitting, and it is seldom that you hear 
a croaker even among the most luxurious class. Well, the 
dinner is over by half past ten, and I go home to an hour 
and a half's work, which has been sent from the office, and 
fall at last into a more or less troubled sleep. This is the 
daily round. 

I have not been to New York since the war began. I 
made one trip across the continent speaking for the Liberty 



276 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Loan, day and night. And this life is pretty much the life 
of all of us here. The President keeps up his spirits by go- 
ing to the theatre three or four times a week. There are 
no official functions at the White House, and everybody's 
teeth are set. The Allies need not doubt our resolution. 
England and France will break before we will, and I do not 
doubt their steadfast purpose. It is, as you said long ago, 
their fault that this war has come, for they did not realize 
the kind of an enemy they had, either in spirit, purpose, or 
strength. But we will increasingly strengthen that western 
gate so that the Huns will not break through. 

We do things fast here, but I never realized before how 
slow we are in getting started. It takes a long time for 
us to get a new stride. I did not think that this was 
true industrially. I have known that it was true politi- 
cally for a long time, because this was the most backward 
and most conservative of all the democracies. We take up 
new machinery of government so slowly. But industrially 
it is also true. When told to change step we shift and 
stumble and halt and hesitate and go through all kinds of 
awkward misses. This has been true as to ships and aero- 
planes and guns, big and little, and uniforms. Whatever 
the government has done itself has been tied by endless red 
tape. It is hard for an army officer to get out of the desk 
habit, and caution, conservatism, sureness, seem even in 
time of crisis to be more important than a bit of daring. In 
my Department, I figure that it takes about seven years 
for the nerve of initiative and the nerve of imagination to 
atrophy, and so, perhaps, it is in other departments. It 
took five months for one of our war bureaus to get out a 
contract for a building that we were to build for them. Fif- 
teen men had to sign the contract. And of course we have 
been impatient. But things are bettering every day. The 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 277 

men in the camps are very impatient to get away. But 
where are the ships to do all the work? The Republicans 
cannot chide us with all of the unpreparedness, for they 
stood in the way of our getting ships three years ago. The 
gods have been against us in the way of weather so we have 
not brought down our supplies to the seaboard, but we have 
not had the ships to take away that which was there; or 
coal, sometimes, for the ships. 

From now, however, you will see a steadier, surer move- 
ment of men, munitions, food, and ships. The whole coun- 
try is solidly, strongly with the President. There are men 
in Congress bitterly against him but they do not dare to 
raise their voices, because he has the people so resolutely 
with him. The Russian overthrow has been a good thing 
for us in one way. It will cost us perhaps a million lives, 
but it will prove to us the value of law and order. We are 
to have our troubles, and must change our system of life 
in the next few years. 

A great oil man was in the office the other day and told 
me in a plain, matter-of-fact way, what must be done to 
win — the sacrifices that must be made — and he ended 
by saying, "After all, what is property?" This is a very 
pregnant question. It is not being asked in Russia alone. 
Who has the right to anything? My answer is, not the 
man, necessarily, who has it, but the man who can use it 
to good purpose. The way to find the latter man is the 
difficulty. 

We will have national woman suffrage, national prohibi- 
tion, continuing inheritance tax, continuing income tax, 
national life insurance, an increasing grip upon the rail- 
roads, their finances and their operation as well as their 
rates. Each primary resource, such as land and coal and 
iron and copper and oil, we will more carefully conserve. 



278 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

There will be no longer the opportunity for the individual 
along these lines that there has been. Industry must find 
some way of profit-sharing or it will be nationalized. These 
things, however, must be regarded as incidents now; and 
the labor people, those with vision and in authority, are very 
willing to postpone the day of accounting until we know 
what the new order is to be like. 

Well, I have rambled on, giving you a general look-in on 
my mind. Don't let any of those people doubt the Presi- 
dent, or doubt the American people. This is the very dark- 
est day that we have seen. But we believe in ourselves and 
we believe in our own kind, and believe in a something, 
not ourselves, that makes for righteousness, — slowly, stum- 
blingly, but, as the centuries go, surely. 

I have not yet seen the Archbishop of York. He has not 
been here. But he has made a most favorable impression 
where he has been, and so have the English labor people. 

Poor Spring-Rice did good work here. Washington felt 
very sad over his death, and is expecting that England will 
evidence her appreciation of the fact that he did nothing 
to estrange us by the way in which his widow is treated. 

Reading has been received and fits in perfectly. With 
warm regards, as always, Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John Lyon 
Machine Gun Company 

Camp McClennen, Alabama 

Washington, March 15, 1918 

My dear John, — I know how you must feel. Every 
particle of my own nature rebels against the horror of this 
war, or of any war, and against the dragooning by military 
men. I had rather die now and take my chances of Hell, 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 279 

than doom myself and Ned and those who are to come after, 
to living under a government which is as this government is 
now and as all governments must be now, — autocratic, 
governed by orders and commands. But this is the game, 
and we have got to play it, play it hard and play it through. 
Manifestly we cannot quit as Russia did without getting 
Russia's ill-fortune. There was a great empire of a hun- 
dred and eighty million people. They mobilized twenty -five 
million men. Six million of them are dead. The Czar was 
overthrown, a new government was set up, one of conserv- 
ative socialism, and that was swept aside and a group of 
impractical socialists put in its stead, and where is Russia 
now? Broken to bits, its population dying of hunger, its 
industries unworked, its soil untilled, and Germany coming 
on with her great feet, stamping down the few who are brave 
enough to interpose themselves between Germany and her 
end. If we were to quit, Germany would do to us, or try to 
do to us, what she has done to Russia. 

If there ever was a real defensive war it is the one that we 
are engaged in, and we must sacrifice, and sacrifice, and sac- 
rifice, not merely for the world's sake but for our own sake. 
Ned is in France. He went through England. He tells me 
that everybody is serious, solemn, purposeful. They would 
rather all die than live under Germany's mastery of the 
world. 

The President is being bitterly criticized because he has 
taken every opportunity to talk of terms and of ways out, 
but I think he is right. He must make the people of the 
world feel that we are not foolishly, and in a headstrong 
way, fighting to get anything for ourselves or for anybody 
else, except the chance to live our own lives. And we will 
show these Germans something. Our capacity to produce 
aeroplanes is still altogether unrealized, and we will have 



280 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

great guns a few feet apart along the entire front. We can 
bomb German harbors where submarines are, and are made 
— that's the work that Ned is going in for, — and we will 
hold that western line until every resource is exhausted. 
And we will go through it one of these days, perhaps not 
this year. But we must go through it or else American 
ships will live on the sea by consent of Germany, and Canada 
will become German territory. This is no dream. Give 
Germany Paris and Calais and she can exact terms from 
England. Why should she not ask for Canada ? And give 
Germany Canada and what becomes of the United States ? 
An army of Germans on our border, 5,000,000 men in arms 
in the United States always, the army and navy budget 
taking thirty or forty per cent of every man's income. Who 
wants to live in such a country ? We are fighting the great- 
est war that history has ever seen, not merely in numbers 
but in principle. We are fighting to get rid of the most 
hateful survivals from the past. The overlord, the brusque 
and arrogant soldier, is the dominating factor in society 
and the government, the turning of men's thoughts away 
from the pursuit of the things of art and beauty and social 
beneficence into the one channel of making everything serve 
the military arm of the nation. 

This will be a better world for the poor man when all is 
over. We must forget our dreams, what our own individual 
lives would have been, and with dash, and cheer, and cour- 
age, and willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice, set our 
jaws and go forward. The devil is in the saddle and we must 
pull him down, or else he will rule the world, — and you 
are to have a tug at his coat. And I envy you. I'd take 
your place in a minute, if I could. Remember that you 
are an individualist, not a collectivist naturally, but in- 
dividuals are of no use now. The war can be made only 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 281 

by great groups who conform. The free spirit of man will 
have its way once more when this bloody war is done. 

I am glad you wrote me, and I want you to feel that you 
always can write me, whatever is in your heart, and I will 
give you such answer as my busy days will permit. There 
is only one way to look at life and get any satisfaction out 
of it, and that is to bow to the inevitable. We all must be 
fatalists to that extent, and once a course has been deter- 
mined upon, accept it and make the best of it. The life 
of the old gambler does not consist in holding a big hand 
but in playing a poor hand well. You and I are no longer 
masters of our own fortunes. All that we can do is to abide 
by the set rules of the game that is being played. I would 
change many things, but I am powerless, and because I am 
powerless I must say to myself each day, "All that God 
demands of me is that I shall do my best," and doing that, 
the responsibility is cast upon that Spirit which is the Great 
Commander. I like to feel at these times that there is a 
personal God and a personal devil, and there has been no 
better philosophy devised than that. God is not supreme, 
He is not omnipotent, He has His limitations, His struggles, 
His defeats, but there is no life unless you believe that He 
ultimately must win, that this world is going upward, not 
downward, that the devil is to be beaten, — the devil in- 
side of ourselves, the devil of wilfulness, of waywardness, of 
cynicism, and the devil that is represented by the over- 
bearing, cruel militarism and ruthless inhumanity of Ger- 
many. You are a soldier of the Lord, just as truly as Christ 

was. 

I send you my affectionate regards, and with it goes the 
confidence that you will, with good cheer and resolution, 
play your part. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



282 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

This boy died in France. Lane wrote to his father of 
him: — 

To Frank Lyon 

Washington, [November 16, 1918] 

Dear Frank, — Have just heard. Dear, dear Boy ! I 
was so fond of him. He had a brave adventurous spirit. 
Well, he has gone out gloriously. There could be no finer 
way to go and no better time. 

I know your own strength will be equal to this test — 
and the wife, poor woman, she too is brave. My heart goes 
out to you both very really, wholly. With much affection. 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Miss Genevieve King 

Washington, March 16, 1918 

My dear Miss King, — These are times of terrible strain 
and stress, and we cannot easily fall back upon those sources 
of power which seem so distant and unavailing. I like to 
think of you as in our last talk in the Miller's drawing room, 
where you had a much better opportunity to express your- 
self than in the one that we later had out on the porch. You 
then seemed to live your thought and to have the capacity 
for its expression. I think of you, too, up on that beautiful 
mountainside, where things like war and guns and bandages 
and hospitals and men without arms and the lack of ships, 
the need for saying goodbye, are so remote. 

We still keep up a semblance of social life by going to 
dinners every night. It is the one relief I have, and yet 
each time I go I feel ashamed at what appears like a waste 
of time, and yet I know is not, and the waste of good food 
which is needed by others so much more than by us. Still 
the people have come down to a strict and modest diet with 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 283 

surprising firmness. There is little evidence of what you 
would call luxury or extravagance, excepting in the way a 
few people live. The place is filled with soldiers of many 
colors, breeds, and uniforms. 

. . . Anne is busy every day at her work, and I see little 
of anyone who does not come to me on business. The coun- 
try seems strongly with the President, and while his spirits are 
not gay, his purpose is high and his determination is strong. 
We will do better, and increasingly better, as time goes on, 
I believe. With warm regards, as always sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Lane was a member of the Executive Council of the Red 
Cross, with whom his wife was working during the war. He 
characterized its symbol as, — "The one flag which binds 
all nations is that which speaks of suffering and healing, 
losses and hopes, a past of courage and a future of peace — 
the flag of the Red Cross." 



To John McNaught 

Washington, March 16, 1918 

My dear John, — It is only now after a month's delay, 
that I have an opportunity even to acknowledge your letter 
of the 17th of February. 

. . . The whole war situation seems to be so big that 
it overwhelms the minds of men. . . . But we are grinding 
on and going surely in the right way. Not everything has 
been done that could be done, but we are getting our step. 
This thing will be longer than we thought. But as the 
President says, it is our job — our job is cut out for us, and 
we are going to see it through. Russia has taught us what 
happens to a nation that is not self-respecting. We are 



284 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

hard at work, every one of us, big and little. The nation 
never was as united, and while we do not realize just what 
war is, yet we will realize it more from day to day and harder 
will our fibre grow. 

My boy is in France. He hopes to fly an aeroplane 
over a German submarine base, and drop a ton of dynamite 
on it and put it out of business. 

How the world has changed since we dreamed together 
in the Cosmos Club! How Paris has changed since we wan- 
dered through its boulevards together ! The day of the 
common man is at hand. Our danger will be in going too 
fast, and by going too fast do injustice to him. But your 
kind of socialism and mine is to have its fling. 

I was much pleased to meet your wife, very much indeed, 
and I hope we may see you here one of these days. With 
my affectionate regards, sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

On May 31, 1918, Lane sent a long letter to President 
Wilson in relation to his plan for providing farms, from the 
public domain, for the returning soldiers. The letter is 
given at some length, because this plan was so dear to Lane's 
heart, and was one upon which he had put much earnest 
study. In addition to the phases of the subject printed 
here, he gave, in his signed letter to President Wilson, de- 
tailed consideration to several other aspects of the matter; 
such as, a comparison of his plan with land-tenure in Den- 
mark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia; the need for 
an extension of the method whereby land can be "developed 
in large areas, sub-divided into individual farms, then sold 
to actual bona fide farmers on long-time payment basis " ; 
and also the part Alaska should be made to play in affording 
agricultural opportunity to our returned soldiers- 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 285 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, May 31, 1918 

My dear Mr. President, — I believe the time has come 
when we should give thought to the preparations of plans 
for providing opportunity for our soldiers returning from 
the war. Because this Department has handled similar 
problems I consider it my duty to bring this matter to the 
attention of yourself and Congress. . . . 

To the great number of returning soldiers, land will offer 
the great and fundamental opportunity. The experience 
of wars points out the lesson that our service men, because 
of army life with its openness and activity, will largely seek 
out-of-doors vocations and occupations. This fact is ac- 
cepted by the allied European nations. That is why their 
programs and policies of re-locating and readjustment em- 
phasize the opportunities on the land for the returning 
soldier. The question then is, "What land can be made 
available for farm homes for our soldiers?" 

We do not have the bountiful public domain of the sixties 
and seventies. In a literal sense, for the use of rt on a gen- 
erous scale for soldier farm homes as in the sixties, "the 
public domain is gone." The official figures at the end of 
the fiscal year, June 30, 1917, show this : We have unappro- 
priated land in the continental United States to the amount 
of 230,657,755 acres. It is safe to say that not one-half 
of this land will ever prove to be cultivable in any sense. 
So we have no lands in any way comparable to that in the 
public domain when Appomattox came — and men turned 
westward with army rifle and "roll blanket," to begin life 
anew. 

While we do not have that matchless public domain of 
'65, we do have millions of acres of undeveloped lands that 



286 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

can be made available for our home-coming soldiers. We 
have arid lands in the West, cut-over lands in the Northwest, 
Lake States, and South, and also swamp lands in the Middle 
West and South, which can be made available through the 
proper development. Much of this land can be made suit- 
able for farm homes if properly handled. But it will require 
that each type of land be dealt with in its own particular 
fashion. The arid land will require water; the cut-over 
land will require clearing; and the swamp land must be 
drained. Without any of these aids, they remain largely 
"No Man's Land." The solution of these problems is no 
new thing. In the admirable achievement of the Reclama- 
tion Service in reclamation and drainage we have abundant 
proof of what can be done. 

Looking toward the construction of additional projects, 
I am glad to say that plans and investigations have been 
under way for some time. A survey and study has been 
in the course of consummation by the Reclamation Service 
on the Great Colorado Basin. That great project, I believe, 
will appeal to the new spirit of America. It would mean the 
conquest of an empire in the Southwest. It is believed that 
more than three millions of acres of arid land could be re- 
claimed by the completion of the Upper and Lower Colorado 
Basin projects. . . . 

What amount of land, in its natural state unfit for farm 
homes, can be made suitable for cultivation by drainage, 
only thorough surveys and studies can develop. We know 
that authentic figures show that more than fifteen million 
acres have been reclaimed for profitable farming, most of 
which lies in the Mississippi River Valley. 

The amount of cut-over lands in the United States, of 
course, it is impossible even in approximation to estimate. 
... A rough estimate of their number is about two hun- 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 287 

dred million acres — that is of land suitable for agricultural 
development. Substantially all this cut-over or logged-off 
land is in private ownership. The failure of this land to be 
developed is largely due to inadequate method of approach. 
Unless a new policy of development is worked out in co- 
operation between the Federal Government, the States, 
and the individual owners, a greater part of it will remain 
unsettled and uncultivated. . . . 

Any plan for the development of land for the returned 
soldier, will come face to face with the fact that a new policy 
will have to meet the new conditions. The era of free or 
cheap land in the United States has passed. We must meet 
the new conditions of developing lands in advance — se- 
curity must to a degree displace speculation. . . . 

This is an immediate duty. It will be too late to plan 
for these things when the war is over. Our thought now 
should be given to the problem. And I therefore desire to 
bring to your mind the wisdom of immediately supplying 
the Interior Department with a sufficient fund with which 
to make the necessary surveys and studies. We should 
know by the time the war ends, not merely how much arid 
land can be irrigated, nor how much swamp land reclaimed, 
nor where the grazing land is and how many cattle it will 
support, nor how much cut-over land can be cleared, but 
we should know with definiteness where it is practicable 
to begin new irrigation projects, what the character of the 
land is, what the nature of the improvements needed will 
be, and what the cost will be. We should know also, not 
in a general way, but with particularity, what definite areas 
of swamp land may be reclaimed, how they can be drained, 
what the cost of the drainage will be, what crops they will 
raise. We should have in mind specific areas of grazing 
lands, with a knowledge of the cattle which are best adapted 



288 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

to them, and the practicability of supporting a family upon 
them. So, too, with our cut-over lands. We should know 
what it would cost to pull or "blow-out" stumps and to put 
the lands into condition for a farm home. 

And all this should be done upon a definite planning 
basis. We should think as carefully of each one of these 
projects as George Washington thought of the planning of 
the City of Washington. We should know what it will cost 
to buy these lands if they are in private hands. In short, 
at the conclusion of the war the United States should be 
able to say to its returned soldiers, "If you wish to go upon 
a farm, here are a variety of farms of which you may take 
your pick, which the Government has prepared against the 
time of your returning." I do not mean by this to carry 
the implication that we should do any other work now than 
the work of planning. A very small sum of money put into 
the hands of men of thought, experience, and vision, will 
give us a program which will make us feel entirely confi- 
dent that we are not to be submerged, industrially or other- 
wise, by labor which we will not be able to absorb, or that 
we would be in a condition where we would show a lack of 
respect for those who return as heroes, but who will be 
without means of immediate self-support. 

A million or two dollars, if appropriated now, will put 
this work well under way. 

This plan does not contemplate anything like charity 
to the soldier. He is not to be given a bounty. He is not 
to be made to feel that he is a dependent. On the con- 
trary, he is to continue, in a sense, in the service of the Gov- 
ernment. Instead of destroying our enemies he is to develop 
our resources. 

The work that is to be done, other than the planning, 
should be done by the soldier himself. The dam or the 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 289 

irrigation project should be built by him, the canals, the 
ditches, the breaking of the land, and the building of the 
houses, should, under proper direction, be his occupation. 
He should be allowed to make his own home, cared for while 
he is doing it, and given an interest in the land for which he 
can pay through a long period of years, perhaps thirty or 
forty years. This same policy can be carried out as to the 
other classes of lands. So that the soldier on his return 
would have an opportunity to make a home for himself, to 
build a home with money which we would advance and 
which he would repay, and for the repayment we would 
have an abundant security. The farms should not be 
turned over as the prairies were — unbroken, unfenced, 
without accommodations for men and animals. There should 
be prepared homes, all of which can be constructed by the 
men themselves, and paid for by them, under a system 
of simple devising by which modern methods of finance will 
be applied to their needs. 

As I have indicated, this is not a mere Utopian vision. It 
is, with slight variations, a policy which other countries 
are pursuing successfully. The plan is simple. I will under- 
take to present to the Congress definite projects for the 
development of this country through the use of the returned 
soldier, by which the United States, lending its credit, may 
increase its resources and its population and the happiness 
of its people, with a cost to itself of no more than the few 
hundred thousand dollars that it will take to study this 
problem through competent men. This work should not be 
postponed. Cordially and faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

The bill, incorporating this plan, was rejected by a Con- 
gress unwilling to accept any solution of any part of the 



290 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

after-war problem, if the plan came from the Wilson Ad- 
ministration. 

In 1918, Colonel Mears, who had been Chief Engineer 
and later Chairman of the Alaskan Commission, in charge 
of the construction of the Alaskan railroad, went, with many 
others, to the front, and Lane was obliged to find new men 
to carry on the Alaskan work. 



To Allan Pollok 

Washington, July 17, 1918 

. . . You certainly can have more time, because I want 
you, and it is not on my own account altogether, because I 
feel sure you will delight in the kind of creative job that it 
is. I found that Scotchmen had made Hawaii, and I would 
like to see some of that same stuff go into Alaska. You see 
we have a fine bunch of men there, practical fellows of ex- 
perience, but not one of them looms large as a business man 
or as a creator. I would personally like to spend a few 
years of my life just dreaming dreams about what could be 
done in that huge territory, and if I only got by with one 
out of five hundred, I would leave a real dent in the history 
of the territory. 

That coal must be brought out of Alaska for the Navy, 
if the Navy is going to use any coal, and we ought to be able 
to send a great many thousands of Americans, as stock 
raisers, and farmers, into Alaska after this war. The cli- 
mate is just as good as that of Montana, and in some places 
much better. Of course it is not a swivel-chair job. It 
is a challenge to everything that a fellow has in him of am- 
bition, courage, imagination, enterprise, and tact, and if we 
can possibly get that road completed by the end of the war, 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 291 

and know that we have another national domain there for 
settlement, it would help out mightily on the returning sol- 
dier problem. You and I cannot fight and that is our bad 
luck. We were born about thirty years too early but I 
have a notion that we can make Alaska do her bit through 
that railroad. ... If you want a great mining expert 
to go in with you I can get one. . . . Come on into the 
game. 

Franklin K. Lane 

To E. S. Pillsbury 

Washington, July 30, 1918 

My dear Mr. Pillsbury, — ... In these radical times 
when things are changing so quickly it does not do to 
be too conservative or things will go altogether to the 
bad. . . . 

Pragmatic tests must be applied strictly and the way 
to beat wild-eyed schemes is to show that they are im- 
practicable, and to harness our people to the land. Every 
man in an industry ought to be tied up in some way by profit- 
sharing or stock-owning arrangements, and we should get 
as large a proportion of our people on small farms as possi- 
ble. If this is not done we are going to have a reign of law- 
lessness. 

When a sense of property goes, it becomes more and more 
apparent to me, that all other conserving and conservative 
tendencies go, and the man who has something is the man 
who will save this country. So it is necessary that just as 
many have something as possible. . . . The one thing 
which the Bolsheviki do not understand is that the eco- 
nomic world is not divided between capital and labor, but 
that there is a great class unrepresented in these two di- 
visions — the managing class which furnishes brains and 



292 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

direction, tact and vision, and no socialistic scheme pro- 
vides for the selection and reward of these men. . . . Cor- 
dially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William Marion Reedy 

Reedy' s Mirror 

Washington, September 13, 1918 

My dear Mr. Reedy, — In the first place ... as to the 
coal agreement, when coal was more than six dollars a ton 
and climbing, and it was nobody's business to reduce the 
price, I made an appeal to the coal operators to fix volun- 
tarily a maximum price of one-half of what they were then 
getting. This they did, with the understanding that it 
would stand only until the Government fixed the price, if 
it chose to do so later. The price was three dollars in the 
East, and two dollars and seventy-five cents in the West, 
and there is not a coal mine in the country to-day, under 
Government operation, that is producing coal for as little as 
that price, which the operators themselves upon my appeal, 
fixed. . . . 

Some day or another we will meet, . . . and I am in- 
clined to believe that you will think me less of a reactionary 
than a radical. I am against a standardized world, an 
ordered, Prussianized world. I am for a world in which 
personal initiative is kept alive and at work. There are 
a lot of people here who believe that you can do things by 
orders, which I know from my knowledge of the human and 
the American spirit can much more effectively be done by 
appeal. 

Everything goes happily here these days, because we are 
winning the war, and the future of the world will soon be in 
the hands of a man who not so long ago was a school teacher. 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 293 

A great world this, isn't it? And the greatest romance is 
not even the fact that Woodrow Wilson is its master, but 
the advance of the Czecho-Slavs across five thousand miles 
of Russian Asia, — an army on foreign territory, without a 
government, holding not a foot of land, who are recognized 
as a nation ! This stirs my imagination as I think nothing 
in the war has, since Albert of Belgium stood fast a*t Liege. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Notes on Cabinet Meetings 
Found in Lane's Files 

October 23, 1918 

Yesterday we had a Cabinet Meeting. All were present. 
The President was manifestly disturbed. For some weeks 
we have spent our time at Cabinet meetings largely in telling 
stories. Even at the meeting of a week ago, the day on 
which the President sent his reply to Germany — his second 
Note of the Peace Series — we were given no view of the Note 
which was already in Lansing's hands and was emitted at 
four o'clock; and had no talk upon it, other than some 
outline given offhand by the President to one of the Cabinet 
who referred to it before the meeting ; and for three-quar- 
ters of an hour told stories on the war, and took up small 
departmental affairs. 

This was the Note which gave greatest joy to the people 
of any yet written, because it was virile and vibrant with 
determination to put militarism out of the world. As he 
sat down at the table the President said that Senator Ashurst 
had been to see him to represent the bewildered state of 
mind existing in the Senate. They were afraid that he 
would take Germany's words at their face value. 

"I said to the Senator," said the President, "do they 



294 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

think I am a damned fool?". . . Yet Senator Kellogg 
says that Ashurst told the Senators that the President 
talked most pacifically, as if inclined to peace, and that 
Ashurst was "afraid that he would commit the country to 
peace," so afraid that he wanted all the pressure possible 
brought to bear on the President by other Senators. At 
any rate, the Note when it came had no pacificism in it, and 
the President gained the unanimous approval of the country 
and the Allies. 

But all this was a week ago. Germany came back with 
an acceptance of the President's terms — a superficial ac- 
ceptance at least — hence the appeal to the Cabinet yes- 
terday. This was his opening, "I do not know what to do. 
I must ask your advice. I may have made a mistake in 
not properly safe-guarding what I said before. What do 
you think should be done?" 

This general query was followed by a long silence, which 
I broke by saying that Germany would do anything he said. 

"What should I say?" he asked. 

"That we would not treat until Germany was across the 
Rhine." 

This he thought impossible. 

Then others took a hand. Wilson said the Allies should 
be consulted. Houston thought there was no real reform 
inside Germany. McAdoo made a long talk favoring an 
armistice on terms fixed by the military authorities. 
Strangely enough, Burleson, who had voted against all our 
stiff action over the Lusitania and has pleaded for the Ger- 
mans steadily, was most belligerent in his talk. He was 
ferocious — so much so that I thought he was trying to 
make the President react against any stiff Note — for he 
knows the President well, and knows that any kind of strong 
blood-thirsty talk drives him into the cellar of pacifism. . . . 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 295 

One of the things McAdoo said was that we could not 
financially sustain the war for two years. He was for an 
armistice that would compel Germany to keep the peace, 
military superiority recognized by Germany, with Foch, 
Haig, and Pershing right on top of them all the time. Sec- 
retary Wilson came back with his suggestion that the Allies 
be consulted. Then Baker wrote a couple of pages outlining 
the form of such a Note suggesting an armistice. I said that 
this should be sent to our "partners" in the war, without 
giving it to the world, that we were in a confidential re- 
lation to France and England, that they were in danger of 
troubles at home, possible revolution, and if the President, 
with his prestige, were to ask publicly an armistice which 
they would not think wise to grant, or which couldn't be 
granted, the sending of such a message into the world would 
be coercing them. The President said that they needed to 
be coerced, that they were getting to a point where they 
were reaching out for more than they should have in justice. 
I pointed out the position in which the President would be 
if he proposed an armistice which they (the Allies) would 
not grant. He said that this would be left to their military 
men, and they would practically decide the outcome of the 
war by the terms of the armistice, which might include leav- 
ing all heavy guns behind, and putting, Metz, Strasburg, 
etc., in the hands of the Allies, until peace was declared. 

I suggested that Germany might not know what the 
President's terms were as to Courland, etc., that this was 
not "invaded territory." He replied that they evidently 
did, as they now were considering methods of getting out 
of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. He said he was afraid of Bol- 
shevism in Europe, and the Kaiser was needed to keep it 
down — to keep some order. He really seemed alarmed 
that the time would come soon when there would be no 



296 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

possibility of saving Germany from the Germans. This 
was a new note to me. 

He asked Secretary Wilson if the press really represented 
the sentiment of the country as to unconditional surrender. 
Wilson said it did. He said that the press was brutal in 
demanding all kinds of punishment for the Germans, in- 
cluding the hanging of the Kaiser. At the end of the meet- 
ing, which lasted nearly two hours, he asked to be relieved 
of Departmental matters as he was unable to think longer. 
I wrote a summary of the position he took, and read it after 
Cabinet meeting to Houston and Wilson, who agreed. It 
follows : — 

If they (the Allies) ask you (the President), "Are you 
satisfied that we can get terms that will be satisfactory to 
us without unconditional surrender?" 

You will answer, "Yes — through the terms of the Armis- 
tice." 

"By an armistice can you make sure that all the fourteen 
propositions will be effectively sustained, so that militarism 
and imperialism will end?" 

"Yes, because we will be masters of the situation and 
will remain in a position of supremacy until Germany puts 
into effect the fourteen propositions." 

"Will that be a lasting peace?" 

"It will do everything that can be done without crushing 
Germany and wiping her out — everything except to gratify 
revenge." 

November 1, 1918 

At last week's Cabinet we talked of Austria — again we 
talked like a Cabinet. The President said that he did not 
know to whom to reply, as things were breaking up so com- 
pletely. There was no Austria-Hungary. Secretary Wil- 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 297 

son suggested that, of course, their army was still under 
control of the Empire, and that the answer would have to 
go to it. 

Theoretically, the President said, German-Austria should 
go to Germany, as all were of one language and one race, 
but this would mean the establishment of a great central 
Roman-Catholic nation which would be under control of 
the Papacy, and would be particularly objectionable to 
Italy. I said that such an arrangement would mean a Ger- 
many on two seas, and would leave the Germans victors 
after all. The President read despatches from Europe on the 
situation in Germany — the first received in many months. 

Nothing was said of politics — although things are at a 
white heat over the President's appeal to the country to 
elect a Democratic Congress. He made a mistake. . . . 
My notion was, and I told him so at a meeting three or four 
weeks ago, that the country would give him a vote of con- 
fidence because it wanted to strengthen his hand. But 
Burleson said that the party wanted a leader with guts — 
this was his word and it was a challenge to his (the Presi- 
dent's) virility, that was at once manifest. 

The country thinks that the President lowered himself 
by his letter, calling for a partisan victory at this time. . . . 
But he likes the idea of personal party-leadership — Cabinet 
responsibility is still in his mind. Colonel House's book, 
Philip Dm, favors it, and all that book has said should be, 
comes about slowly, even woman suffrage. The President 
comes to Philip Dru in the end. And yet they say that 
House has no power. . . . 

Election Day. November 5, [19181 
At Cabinet some one asked if Germany would accept 
armistice terms. The President said he thought so. . . . 



298 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

The President spoke of the Bolsheviki having decided 
upon a revolution in Germany, Hungary, and Switzerland, 
and that they had ten million dollars ready in Switzerland, 
besides more money in Swedish banks held by the Jews 
from Russia, ready for the campaign of propaganda. He 
read a despatch from the French minister in Berne, to Jusse- 
rand, telling of this conspiracy. Houston suggested the 
advisability of stopping it by seizing the money and intern- 
ing the agitators. After some discussion, the President 
directed Lansing to ask the Governments in Switzerland 
and Sweden to get the men and money, and hold them, and 
then to notify the Allies of what we had done and suggest 
that they do likewise. Lansing suggested a joint Note, 
but the President vetoed this idea, wanting us to take the 
initiative. He spoke of always having been sympathetic 
with Japan in her war with Russia, and thought that the 
latter would have to work out her own salvation. But he 
was in favor of sending food to France, Belgium, Italy, 
Serbia, Roumania, and Bulgaria just as soon as possible; 
and the need was great, also in Austria. 

He said that the terms had been agreed upon, but he did 
not say what they were — further than to say that the Coun- 
cil at Versailles had agreed to his fourteen points, with two 
reservations : — (1) as to the meaning of the freedom of the 
seas, (2) as to the meaning of the restoration of Belgium and 
France. This word he had directed Lansing to give to the 
Swiss minister for Germany — and to notify Germany also 
that Foch would talk the terms of armistice. ... He is 
certainly in splendid humor and in good trim — not worried 
a bit. And why should he be, for the world is at his feet, 
eating out of his hand ! No Caesar ever had such a tri- 
umph ! . . 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 299 

November 6, 1918 

Yesterday we had an election. I had expected we would 
win because the President had made a personal appeal for 
a vote of confidence, and all other members of the Cabinet 
had followed suit, except Baker who said he wanted to keep 
the Army out of politics. The President thought it was 
necessary to make such an appeal. He liked the idea of 
personal leadership, and he has received a slap in the face — 
for both Houses are in the balance. This is the culmination 
of the policy Burleson urged when he got the President to 
sign a telegram which he (Burleson) had written opposing 
Representative Slayden, his personal enemy, from San An- 
tonio, and, in effect, nominating Burleson's brother-in-law for 
Congress. We heard of it by the President bringing it up 
at Cabinet. Burleson worked it through Tumulty. The 
President said that he did not know whether to write other 
letters of a similar nature as to Vardaman, Hardwick, et al. 
I advised against it, saying that the voters had sense enough 
to take care of these people. Burleson said, "The people 
like a leader with guts." The word struck the President's 
fancy and although Lansing, Houston, and Wilson also pro- 
tested, in as strong a manner as any one ever does pro- 
test, the letters were issued. . . . Even before the Slayden 
letter was one endorsing Davies, in Wisconsin, as against 
Lenroot. . . . Then came the letter to the people of the 
whole country, reflecting upon the Republicans, saying that 
they were in great part pro-war but not pro-administration. 

November 11, 1918 

On Sunday I heard that Germany was flying the red flag, 
and postponed my promised visit to the Governors of the 
South, to be held at Savannah. At eleven yesterday word 



300 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

came that the President would speak to Congress at one, 
and that he would have no objection if the Departments 
closed to give opportunity for rejoicings. I went to a meet- 
ing of the Council of National Defence and spoke, welcom- 
ing the members. It was a meeting called by Baruch to 
plan reconstruction — but the President had notified him 
on Saturday that he could not talk or have talking on that 
subject. So all I could do was to give a word of greeting 
to men who are bound to be disappointed at being called 
for nothing. 

The President's speech was, as always, a splendidly done 
bit of work. He rose to the occasion fully and it was the 
greatest possible occasion. . . . Lansing says that they 
(he and the President) had the terms of Armistice before elec- 
tion — terms quite as drastic as unconditional surrender. 



To Daniel Willard 
President, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 

Washington, November 7, 1918 

Dear Mr. Willard, — I am extremely sorry to receive 
word that you are leaving us, but of course you are going 
into a sphere of action much larger than the one you are in 
here, and we must yield you with every grace, no matter 
how unwillingly. You will be gone from us only a short 
time, I trust, and then I shall have the opportunity of see- 
ing more of you and continuing a friendship which has been 
of very real value to me. 

All that you say about the Advisory Commission is true, 
and more. If the history of the Council of National De- 
fence and of the Advisory Commission is ever written it 
will be seen that you gentlemen, who gave your time and 
experience freely, gave the first real impulse to war prepa- 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 301 

ration, and we missed out only because we did not have 
more authority to vest in you. I am very proud of the 
first six months of the Council's work and of the Commis- 
sion's work. 

I received your letter telling me of the death of your son 
and daughter-in-law, and I did not have the heart to write 
you another line. The mystery and the ordering of this 
world grow altogether inexplicable when the affections are 
wrenched. It requires far more religion or philosophy than 
I have, to say a real word that might console one who has 
lost those who are dear to him. Ten years ago my mother 
died, and I have never become reconciled to her loss. This 
is a wrong state of mind, and I hope that you are sustained by 
that unfaltering trust of which Bryant spoke. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To James II. Hawley 

Washington, November 9, 1918 

My dear Governor, — ... To my great surprise we 
have lost both Houses. We felt sure that we would carry 
both, and did not appreciate the extent to which the Re- 
publicans would be consolidated by the President's letter, 
which, from what I hear was one of the inducing causes of 
the result; although not by any means the only one, for 
the feeling in the North and West was strong that the South 
in some way was being preferred. I am fresh from a talk 
with Senator Phelan who, to my surprise, tells me that these 
were the factors in the New England States from which he 
has just come. . . . 

The Wilson administration may be judged by the great 
things that it has done — the unparallelled things — and 
the election of last Tuesday will get but a line in the history 
of this period, while the Versailles conference and the Four- 



302 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

teen Points of Wilson's message will have books written 
about them for a century to come. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Samuel G. Blythe 
London, England 

Washington, November 13, 1918 

My dear Sam, — I had not seen the review of my little 
book of speeches 1 made by the Daily Mail until you sent it 
to me. I guess we are a nation of idealists and it won't do 
any harm to have a little of this leaven thrown into the 
European lump. I am amused when I read the reviews 
on this book to see myself regarded as the rather imagina- 
tive interpreter of the national attitude, after these twenty 
years of quiet, stiff legal opinions on municipal law and rail- 
road problems. 

Glad to hear of the boy ! He is a poor correspondent, as 
most two-fisted young chaps are apt to be. I envy you your 
opportunity now to see the revolution in Germany, and its 
possible spreading elsewhere. I think you might write an 
article on how revolution comes to a country ; a picture of 
just how the thing happens ; what the first step was ; what 
kind of organization there was and how they went about 
their business and got hold of the Government. There is 
a whole book in this, but immediately there is a chance for 
a couple of mighty interesting articles. 

Here we have gone wild over the victory and peace, and 
the fact that the election went against us means nothing, so 
far as international questions are concerned. We had not 
fixed the price on cotton while we had fixed the price on 
wheat, and that made the North feel that this is a South- 
ern Administration. The Republicans were united for the 

1 The American Spirit, 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 303 

first time in ten years. These are the big reasons for the 
shift. You see we have no idea here of Cabinet responsi- 
bility or votes of confidence or lack of confidence. I expect 
there will be some fun in Congress for the next two years. 
As always, cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, December 16, 1918 
My dear George, — I have your long letter, telling me 
of all your sad experiences with red tape and how you have 
settled down at last to do your bit at home. You have gone 
through the bitterness that most fellows have experienced 
in trying to do anything with the Government. I really 
am very sorry that you had to make such a financial sacri- 
fice and break up your home and then be fooled, but prob- 
ably it is all for the best. The war is over, the boys are 
coming home soon and this brings me to the main point. 

Ned got home this morning. Nancy, Anne, and I went 
to Norfolk to meet him. He had no expectation of seeing 
us there and at eight o'clock on a very rainy foggy morning, 
we came up along side of his transport and he was taken by 
surprise. He had a fine lot of boys with him, but since 
May he had been at the Naval Aviation Headquarters as 
one of the General Staff. 

He had many narrow escapes ; had men killed standing be- 
side him, torn to pieces by shrapnel ; was knocked over by the 
concussion of shells ; was over the lines in the battle of Cha- 
teau-Thierry in an aeroplane, flew across the Austrian-Italian 
lines and chased the German on his retreat through Belgium. 

He seems to be in good health, though rather nervous. 
He very much admires the men who were his comrades and 
his superiors, but is glad to be out of it all. I think he would 



304 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

like to get on a big farm. My plan for getting farms for 
the soldier is making slow progress. I have got to put in 
all my effort now to get some decisive answer out of Con- 
gress — either yes or no. . . . 

[Ned] has seen France very thoroughly, all the north of 
Italy from Rome up, England, and Ireland. In the latter 
spot, he was shot at three times, notwithstanding a general 
order that no Irishman is allowed to have a gun. He was 
challenged to a duel by a Frenchman who tried to get away 
with his seat in a car. He gave the Frenchman a good lick- 
ing and then discovered that he was liable to court martial, 
but he got the seat and then told the French lieutenant he 
would throw him out of the car window if he talked any 
more about dueling. The following morning he offered the 
Frenchman a cigarette which was taken, and they shook 
hands and parted. 

He went up in an aeroplane in Italy at one place and had 
a hunch, he said, that something was wrong with the ma- 
chine and so he brought it down and landed. Another 
fellow took it up, an Italian. He got up about one thousand 
feet in the air and the gas tank exploded. The poor fellow 
came down burnt to a cinder, all within five minutes. 

He shot a German from the Belgian trenches and has been 
recommended four times for promotion, but hasn't got it yet. 

With much love to Frances and yourself, I am, affection- 
ately yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Edgar C. Bradley 
Assistant Secretary of the Interior 

Washington, [December 18, 1918] 

My dear Bradley, — You wouldn't let me close my sen- 
tence yesterday and I don't propose to close it to-day. 



CABINET NOTES IN WAR-TIME 305 

Yet I am not going to let you drive westward toward the 
land and people we both love so much, without letting you 
carry a word of affection and greeting from me, which you 
can just throw to the winds when you get there, throw it 
out of the window to Tamalpais, it will sweep over those 
eucalyptus trees on the right, throw it up to the Berkeley 
hills, which now are turning green, I suppose, throw it up 
the long stretch of Market Street till it reaches Twin Peaks, 
and let it flow down over "south of the slot" that was, and 
up over Nob Hill, even to the sacred brownstone of the 
Pacific-Union. 

Go with a heart that is full of rejoicing that peace has 
come, through our sacrifice as well as that of other of the no- 
bler peoples of earth, and with a heart that is proud that you 
were able to help with your strength and sane judgment 
and great gentleness of speech and manner, in carrying on 
this nation's affairs in the day of its greatest adventure. 

We shall all miss you greatly, whether you are gone two 
weeks or two years ! Do just what you think is right, just 
what she who is so much to you thinks you should do. There 
is no better test of a man's duty. 

If you can't return we shall stagger on. I shan't stop 
climbing this ladder because a rung is gone — tho' many a 
rung is gone — and a damn hard old ladder this is some- 
times. . . . 

F. K. L. 



XI 

AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS — LEAVING 
WASHINGTON 

1919 

After-war Problems — Roosevelt Memorials — Americanization — 
Religion — Responsibility of Press — Resignation 

To E. C. Bradley 

Washington, January, 1919 

My dear Bradley, — ... I am terribly broken up over 
Roosevelt's death. He was a great and a good man, a man's 
man, always playing his game in the open. . . . 

I loved old Roosevelt because he was a hearty, two-fisted 
fellow. . . . The only fault I ever had to find with him was 
that he took defeat too hard. He had a sort of "divine 
right" idea, but he was a bully fighter. I went to his 
funeral and have joined in mass meetings in his memory, 
which I suppose is all I can do. ... Of course ... he 
said a lot of things that were unjust and unjustifiable, but 
if a fellow doesn't make a damned fool of himself once in a 
while he wouldn't be human. The Republicans would have 
nominated him next time undoubtedly. They are without 
a leader now, and we are just as much up in the air as ever. 
... I am standing by the President for all I am worth. 
I talked to the Merchants' Association the other day and 
gave him a great send-off, but they didn't rise to their feet 
at all, which is the first time this has happened in two years. 
. . . Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

306 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 307 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, January 30, 1919 

My dear George, — ... The one thing that bothers us 
here is the problem of unemployment. We have not, of 
course, had time to turn around and develop any plan for 
reconstruction. Our whole war machine went to pieces in 
a night. Everybody who was doing war work dropped his 
job with the thought of Paris in his mind, with the result 
that everything has come down with a crash, in the way of 
production, but nothing in the way of wages or living costs. 
Wages cannot go down until the cost of living does, and 
production won't increase while people believe prices will 
be lower later on. I to-day proposed to Secretary Glass 
that he enter upon a campaign to promote production, 
(1) by seeing what the Government could buy, (2) by seeing 
what the industries would take as a bottom price, (3) by 
getting the Food Administration at work to reduce prices. 
Perhaps it may do some good. . . . 

I have always thought the President was right in going 
across, and I believe that he will pull through a League of 
Nations. When I get a copy of it I will send you my speech 
on this subject, which is rather loose but is a plea for dreams. 

Ned is going West to work for Doheny in some oil field, 
starting at the bottom. I rather think this is right, but of 
course he won't stay as a laborer very long. The boy is 
fine and gay, and did splendid work, and is anxious to get 
into the game and make money. Just where he gets this 
desire for making money I don't know. Certainly I never 
had it. But he was telling me the other day of his hope that 
by forty he would have made enough money to retire. I 
told him you were the only fellow I ever knew who had 
actually retired, and you had only done it half way. He will 
report at Los Angeles, but I expect he will get up to see you 



308 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

as soon as he can. He has a remarkable affection for Cali- 
fornia, considering he has seen so little of it, and so has 
Nancy. They both regard it as the golden land where all 
things smile, and people have hearts. I have not attempted 
to cure them of their illusion. 

Do write me a good, long letter, for I am always eager to 
hear from you. 

F. K. L. 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, May 1, [1919] 

My dear George, — Well, what do you think of the Italian 
situation? I think the President right, that Fiume should 
not go to Italy. Certainly she has no moral claim, for by 
the Pact of London, Fiume was to go to Croatia. Orlando 
says that he is answering the call of the Italians in exile. 
Let them stay in exile, I say. They went into a foreign 
land to make money and now they wish to annex the land 
they are visiting, to the home country. How would we 
like it if the Chinese swamped San Francisco and then asked 
to be annexed to China ? This is carrying the Fiume idea 
to its ultimate, a ridiculous ultimate, of course, as most 
ultimates are. 

Whether he [President Wilson] gave out the statement 
as to the break too early, and without the consent of England 
and France, of course I don't know. Quite like him to do 
it if he thought the thing had hung long enough, and that 
Italy was too damn predatory. And she does seem to be. 
The New Idea seems to have less real hold in Italy — at 
least among the governing class — than in any other Euro- 
pean country. Her present position will postpone peace. 
This will cause us trouble over the extra session of Congress 
for our appropriations will run out. And perhaps in Eng- 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 309 

land it may give a chance for labor troubles to rise. It will 
postpone the return of good times to this country. But 
ultimately Italy will have to come through. If economic 
pressure were put upon her she would be compelled to yield 
at once, for she depends on England and ourselves for all 
the coal she uses, and on us chiefly for her wheat. Of course 
this form of coercion will not be resorted to. She might 
think more kindly if she were given an extended credit, 
say of two hundred million dollars. But the people being 
aroused now over what they think is a matter of principle 

— loyalty to their compatriots in Fiume — they may not 
be able to compromise. Lord Reading rather fears that this 
is the situation and that it might have been avoided if the 
President had not issued his statement when he did. How- 
ever, I have no doubt that the President will have his way. 
He nearly always does. Surely the God that once was the 
Kaiser's is now his. 

To be the First President of the League of Nations is to 
be the crowning glory of his life. I believe in the League 

— as an effort. It will not cure, but it is a serious effort 
to get at the disease. It is a hopeful effort, too, for it makes 
moral standards, standards of conduct between nations which 
will bring conventional pressure to bear on the side of peace, 
to offset the old convention of rushing into war to satisfy 
hurt feelings. Sooner or later there will come disarmament 

— the pistol will be taken away and the streets will be safer. 
The boy is having a tough time in his oil work. It is so 

dirty ! But I hope he sticks out until he proves himself. I 
hear that the Dutch Shell people have bought out Cowdray 
in Mexico, and now are trying to get Doheny's lands. They 
bestride the earth, and as soon as their activities are known 
generally, this country will look upon the Standard Oil as 
the American champion in a big international fight. 



310 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

. . . Well, dear old chap, I know that I could add nothing 
to your cure if I were there but I am not content to be so 
far away from you. . . . 

F. K. L. 

To William Boyce Thompson 
Roosevelt Permanent Memorial National Committee 

Washington, May 20, 1919 

My dear Mr. Thompson, — I told Mr. Loeb that I would 
feel greatly honored to be a member of a Memorial Com- 
mittee, to do honor to Ex-President Roosevelt. To-day, I 
receive an agreement which I am asked to sign in which the 
members of the Committee are to pledge themselves to a 
memorial for the furtherance of Mr. Roosevelt's policies. 
I do not know what such a phrase means. With some of 
his policies I know I was in hearty accord but as to others, 
such as the tariff, I have my doubts. This might be turned 
or construed into a great machine for propaganda of a par- 
tisan character, and it seems to me that the Colonel's memory 
is altogether too precious a national possession to have that 
construction possibly given to any memorial to him. 

There are hundreds of thousands of Democrats, like myself, 
who admired him and who would contribute toward a memo- 
rial, who should not be asked to do this if it was any more 
than a straight-out memorial to the man, the soldier, the natu- 
ralist, the historian, the President, the intense, vital American. 

And all of your officers, so far as I am acquainted with 
them, are Republicans. This does not seem to convey quite 
the right suggestion. 

I have already planned for a lasting Roosevelt memorial 
in the creation of a park in California, to bear Colonel Roose- 
velt's name. I expect this will have Congressional approval 
at the present session of Congress. 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 311 

Last night I talked with Senator Frank Kellogg about 
this matter, and he agrees with my view. He says that he 
understood the memorial was to be something in Washington 
of a permanent and artistic character, and perhaps the home 
at Oyster Bay, and that the personnel of all committees was 
to be popular, including if possible as many Democrats as 
Republicans. 

Under these circumstances I beg leave to withhold my 
signature to the agreement sent me. I would have no 
objection to asking Congress to provide for a memorial, 
though I think this should be deferred as a matter of pol- 
icy until the public had subscribed generously. Cordially 
yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
President Emeritus, University of California 

Washington, June 16, 1919 

My dear Wheeler, — I have seen your goodbye address 

at Berkeley, and I am very glad I did not hear it, for it must 

have been a sad day for Berkeley and for you. The address 

itself was a noble word. I hear that you have bought 

Lucy Sprague's home and are to remain in Berkeley. This 

is as it should be. You can ripen into the Sage of Berkeley, 

and be a center of influence, stimulating the best in others. 

A long, long life to you ! Always sincerely and devotedly 

yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To E. S. Martin 

Life 

Washington, August 23, 1919 

My dear Mr. Martin, — ... It does not seem to me that 
this country will rise to a class war. We have too many 



SIS LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

farmers and small householders and women — put the ac- 
cent on the women. They are the conservatives. Until 
a woman is starving, she does not grow Red, unless she is 
without a husband or babies and has a lot of money that she 
did not earn. . . . Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, September 11, 1919 

Dear George, — You do not know how much of sympathy 
I send out to you and how many words of prayer I send up 
for you. You need them all, I expect. . . . What a long 
siege you have had ! 

I suppose you will not be able to hear the President speak 
when he is there. You will miss much. He is not impas- 
sioned nor a great orator, such as Chatham or Fox, or Web- 
ster or Dolliver, or even Bryan — but he has a keen, quick, 
cutting mind, the mind of a really great critic, and his manner 
is that of the gentleman scholar. He is first among all men 
to-day, which is much for America. 

My Nancy has been having a splendid time, even if she 
only saw your ranch for a week — but she is the gayest 
thing alive — God grant she may continue so always. . . . 

For the first time in twenty-five years we are living in 
an apartment, large and in a nice place, but somehow my 
sense of the fitness of things will not let me call the place 
"home" — altho' it is the most comfortable habitation I 
have ever lived in, elevator, whole floor to ourselves, . . . and 
they let me keep my dog. I wouldn't have come if they 
hadn't. We turned down a fine place with a more ex- 
pansive view because Jack was not wanted. But surely in 
these days of doubt and disloyalty one must have some rock 
to cling to, why not a trusting-eyed dog? . . . But all 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 313 

this does not recompense me for the absence of a "home" — 
which is a house, anywhere. Yet we may have to do our 
own work. . . . The cooks are all too proud to work — I 
wish you would tell me just how this economic problem 
should be settled. How much do you believe in socialism 
or socialization ? . . . Do you think there can be a partner- 
ship in business ? I am inclined to think this can be worked 
out, along lines of cooperative ownership, but not until an 
enterprise is well standardized. 

I expect bad times soon with labor. We are only post- 
poning the evil day. The President seems less radical than 
he was. He is sobered by conditions, I suspect. The negro 
is a danger that you do not have. Turn him loose and he 
is a wild man. Every Southerner fears him. 

... I am trying hard to believe something that might 
be called the shadow of a religion — a God that has a good 
purpose, and another life in which there is a chance for 
further growth, if not for glory. But when I bump up 
against a series of afflictions such as you have been subjected 
to, I fall back upon Fred's philosophy of a purposeless or 
else a cruel God. ... I simply have a sinking of the heart, 
a goneness, a hopelessness — not even the pleasure of a 
resignation. Old Sid's cold mind has worked itself through 
to a decision that there is no purpose and no future, and 
finds solace in the ultimate; having reached the cellar he 
finds the satisfaction of rest. I can't get there for my 
buoyancy, the hold-over of early teachings or perhaps my 
naturally sanguine nature will not permit me to hit bottom, 
but forever I must be floating, floating — nowhere. Happy 
the man who strikes the certainty of a rock-bottom hell, 
rather than one who is kept floating midway — that is a 
purgatory worse than hell. I don't seem to have any capac- 
ity for anger, as against God or man, for anything that be- 



314 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

falls me, but I get morbid over the injustices done to others. 
Now I shall stop philosophizing on this matter for it is three 
in the morning, and too hot to sleep, and such a time is 
made for wickedness and not for righteousness. 

I am sorry you will not see the President. He is worth 
hearing, better than reading, and he always talks well. He 
can not pass his treaty without some kind of reservations 
and he should have seen this a month ago. The Republicans 
will not struggle to pass it in his absence and think that they 
have done a smart thing, but in the end Wilson and not 
Lodge would win by such a trick. The one greatest of 
vices is smart-aleckism. Sometime I shall write an essay on 
that subject. The burglar and the confidence operator and 
the profiteer and the profligate and the defaulting bank 
cashier are all victims of that disease — smart-aleckism. 
They will do a trick, to prove how clever they are. I be- 
lieve that is the way ninety per cent of the boys and girls 
go wrong, and instead of teaching them the Bible, why not 
try reducing the size of their conceit and their disposition 
to boast. I just wonder how far wrong I am on this ? 

. . . Don't let the family worry you. Call for the police 
if they don't let you have your own way. . . . What a 
plague of women ! But how did monks manage to live 
anyhow ? Maybe they chose a hard death — perhaps that 
was the secret of the whole monkery game ! Women let 
us down into the grave with much unction to our ego, I 
mean sweet oil of adoration . . . poured out upon the way 
down to Avernus. . . . Don't feel discouraged because 
you lie there. I feel much more discontented than you do, 
right here at the heart of the world. . . . Love to Maude 
and Frances, and mention me with proper respect and 
dignity to Miss Nancy Lane. 

F. K. 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 315 

To Van H. Manning 
Director, Bureau of Mines 

Washington, September 24, 1919 

My dear Mr. Manning, — I have been intending for sev- 
eral days to write you a letter regarding the Petroleum 
Institute, but the opportunity has been denied me. Perhaps 
you will be good enough to say to the gentlemen, whom I 
understand you are to meet tomorrow, that I regard their 
work, if taken hold of whole-heartedly, as of the greatest 
national importance. It is quite manifest now that private 
enterprise must stand in the forefront in the development of 
this industry, and that what the government can do will be 
supplemental and suggestive. It is not an exaggeration to 
say that millions of dollars must be spent in experiment 
before we know the many services to which a barrel of oil 
can be put. There is almost an indefinite opportunity for 
research work along this line. 

Petroleum is a challenge to the chemists of the world. 
And now the world is dependent upon it, as it is upon nothing 
else excepting coal and iron, and the foodstuffs and textiles. 
It has jumped to this place of eminence within twenty years, 
and the world is concerned in knowing how large a supply 
there is and how every drop of it can best be used. Prac- 
tically, I think you should urge that there be cooperative 
effort to protect against waste. The oil men themselves 
should see the value of this and spend their money freely 
to keep their wells from being flooded, to keep their pipe 
lines from leaking, and to save their gas. 

We are behind the rest of the world in the use of our oil 
for fuel purposes. We are spendthrifts in this as in other 
of our national resources. We can get three times as much 
energy as we do out of our oil through the use of the Diesel 
engine, yet we are doing little to promote development of 



316 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

a satisfactory type of stationary Diesel, or marine design. 
Instead of seeing how many hundred millions of barrels of oil 
we can produce and use, our effort should be to see how few 
millions of barrels will satisfy our needs. I say this although 
I am not a pessimist as to the available supply, which I believe 
has been underestimated rather than overestimated. I am 
satisfied that the man who has a barrel of oil has something 
which, if he can save, is better than a government bond. 
Throughout the Nation we must make a drive to increase 
production — that is the slogan of this time — but that does 
not mean that we should make a drive to exhaust resources 
which God alone can duplicate. 

Then too, I think that Congress can be largely helped by 
the sane presentation of wise policies touching this industry. 
I have the belief that whatever the body of oil men would 
agree upon would be something that would make for the 
best use of petroleum, and for the protection over a long 
period of this fundamental resource in our industry. Con- 
gress has difficulty often in getting the large view of prac- 
tical men who speak without personal interest, and such an 
Institute could speak not for the individual but for the in- 
dustry and show how it may best be developed in the 
interest of the country. 

To do these things, and to do them adequately, will re- 
quire the men in the industry to take the attitude of states- 
men and not of selfish exploiters. It means they must tax 
themselves liberally, generously. It means that they must 
think of themselves as trustees for a Public as wide as the 
world. 

Please give my regards to the members of the Institute. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 317 

To E. C. Bradley 

Washington, October 2, 1919 

My dear Bradley, — ... I have all along said that the 
treaty could not be ratified without some interpretive reser- 
vations. I think that the President will see that, although he 
sees clearly, as I do, that these interpretations are already 
in the treaty itself, but on a question of construction two 
men may honestly differ. The whole damn thing has gotten 
into the maelstrom of politics, of the nastiest partisanship, 
when it ought to have been lifted up into the clearer air of 
good sense and national dignity. . . . 

Hoover can be elected. He came home modestly and 
made a splendid speech. We need a man of great adminis- 
trative ability and of supreme sanity who can lead us into 
quiet waters, if there are any. 

. . . We have imported, with our labor, their discontent, 
and the theories which are founded upon it to obtain the 
price. But the American workingman is a sensible fellow, 
when he can have the chance to think without being over- 
whelmed by fear, and he will realize that his betterment in 
a material way must come through his own individual 
growth and the growth of the conscience of the people who 
believe in a square deal. The serious thing in the whole 
situation, to my mind, is the fact that so many workingmen 
seem to accept the idea that they are of a fixed class ; that 
they can not move out of their present conditions ; that they 
want always to remain as employees and have no hope of 
becoming superintendents, employers, managers, or capital- 
ists ; and therefore think that their only prospect is in better- 
ing their condition as a part of a class. Great propaganda 
should be carried on to show how false this is and how much 
demand there is for men of ability. 

With warm regards, old man, I am cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



318 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To Mrs. Louise Herrick Wall 

Washington, Friday, [October 10, 1919] 

My dear Mrs. Wall, — We heard through Ned of the 
Commodore's death, and you can realize how shocked and 
terribly grieved we were, and still are. 

Poor dear girl, there is nothing anyone can say that will 
help even a little bit. Every word of appreciation makes 
the loss more serious. And you need no one to tell you that 
he was loved by us, and every single person who really knew 
him. He was to me Christlike, beautiful, gentle, wise and 
noble. Since that first day, nearly thirty years ago on 
Grays Harbor, I have known him as one of the rare spirits 
of the world, and Anne and I have loved him deeply. Surely 
he must live on, and we must all see him again ! 

May strength come to you out of the Infinite resources 
of the Universe to bear this blow. The world was made 
better by him ! In deep sympathy, 

Frank Lane 

To 

Wednesday, November, [1919] 

My dear old Man, — I am sitting alone in my den having 
come down stairs to write a line on my report, but instead 
have been lured into an evening of delight with Robert Louis 
Stevenson, whose letters, in four volumes, I advise you to read 
for the spirit of the man. Much like your own, my brave 
fine fellow ! He went through tortures with a smile and a 
merry imagination which made him great, and makes all of 
us, and many more to come, his debtor. I know how little 
you read. The birds have been yours and the trees and the 
dogs and fishes, but there are men in the world, or have been, 
whom one can know through their writings. Did you ever 
read Trevelyan's three volumes on Garibaldi ? No, — well 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 319 

get it before you are a week older and you will thank me for 
ever and a day. 

All of this, however, I had not intended to write, rather 
to tell you . . . how emotional I have been all day with the 
old soldiers passing by on parade — the last that many of 
them will ever have. 

Fifty years ago, Andrew Johnson received Grant's re- 
turned forces on the same spot. There were 180,000, or so, 
then — and 20,000 now — crippled, lame, one-legged, bent, 
halting most of them, but determined to make the long 
journey from the Capitol to the White House, and prove 
that they had lived this long time and were still good for a 
longer journey. There was little of gaiety among them, 
tho' some were swinging flags, torn, tattered, be-shot . . . 
and raised their hats to the President as they passed, tho' 
most of them, doubtless, were sorry that he was not a Repub- 
lican. It was a time to remember. 

. Nancy is back after her tour of glory — larger than 
ever but not less tender or playful. She is the brightest 
spirit I have ever met — and all her vanities are so dear 
and human and lie so frankly exposed. I thank you for 
your kindness to her, she loves you very much ; yes, really 
recognizes those qualities which some cannot see, poor 
blind things ! But I can, and she can, and Frances can, and 
many more when you give them a look in. May your grass 
grow and soul keep warm and your spirit lift itself in song 
at morning and at night. Affectionately always, 

F. L. 

To M. A. Mathew 

Washington, November 3, 1919 

My dear Mr. Mathew, — I have your letter of October 
27th, and I appreciate very much its kind words. The 



320 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Industrial Conference was not a success because we got into 
the steel strike at first, and people talked about their rights 
instead of talking of their duties. We will have another 
conference, however, which I think will do some real work 
and lay a foundation for the future. The coal strike is a 
bad one, but the people are not in sympathy with it, and 
sooner or later, in my judgment, it will come to an adjust- 
ment situation in which the President will be perfectly 
willing to participate. He, by the way, is getting along 
very well, but I expect it will be many weeks before he is 
himself again. . . . Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Herbert C. Pell, Jr. 
House of Representatives 

Washington, November 8, 1919 

My dear Mr. Pell, — I wish you success with your Con- 
stitutional League. I have no objection whatever to my 
name being used in connection with it, providing the League 
is not an institution for denouncing people or denouncing 
theories of government or economic panaceas; but is a 
positive, aggressive institution for the presentation to our 
people of the fact that we have in this Democracy a method 
of doing whatever we wish done, which avoids the necessity 
for anything like revolutionary action. The objection to 
Bolshevism is that it is absolutism — as Lenine has said 
himself, the absolutism of the proletariat. It is an economic 
government by force, while our Democracy is a government 
by persuasion. 

I find that no good comes from calling names. The men 
who are to be reached are the men who are not committed 
against us, but are disposed to be with American institutions. 
We must show them that we have a system that it is worth 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 321 

while betting on, and that if they have another way of doing 
things economical, machinery by which it can be instituted 
is in the peoples' hands. Our policy is to look before we 
leap, and to submit our methods to the judicial judgment of 
the people. This permits any doctrine to be preached that 
does not subvert our institutions. Where do our institu- 
tions come from ? What have they been effective in bring- 
ing about? What is the condition of the United States 
as a whole compared with other countries? Can we hope 
to work out our salvation without civil war? These are 
legitimate questions, the answer to which is found in this 
other question — is not political Democracy the one prac- 
tical way to eventual industrial Democracy? Cordially 

yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Henry P. Davison 

Washington, November 23, 1919 

My dear Mr. Davison, — I wired you yesterday my con- 
clusion, as to your very generous and patriotic offer, which 
was the same that I had come to before seeing you in New 
York. Your appeal was so strong and went so much to 
my impulse for public service that you made me feel that, 
perhaps, I was giving undue weight to the considerations I 
had presented to you. So I sought the judgment of others 
— all of them men of large distinction whom you know, or 
at least have confidence in, and without dissent I found them 
saying, voluntarily and unbidden, what I had said to you — 
that for me to undertake this work of arousing the best 
patriotic feeling of America, on a salary, would make seri- 
ously against the success of the work and against my own 
value in it, or in anything else I might undertake. If I 
were rich I would go into it with my whole heart. But a 



322 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

poor man can not be charged with making money out of 
the exploitation of the good opinion others have of his love 
of country. This is not squeamishness, it is a rough stand- 
ard, arrived at by instinct rather than by any refined process 
of reasoning. 

I say this to you because of my deep confidence in you and 
my very real confidence that you are my friend, and sought 
to do me a kindness and give me an opportunity. Now 
let me see if I can be of any help in this work. . . . 

[Here followed a full detailed plan of an Americanization 
program, that concluded with the paragraph.] 

These outline some methods of reaching the public with 
the idea that this is a land that is lovable, prosperous, good- 
humored, great, and noble-spirited. To carry it out will 
cost a great deal of money, I should say that not less than 
five million a year should be available. With warm regard, 
cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To George W. Lane 

Washington, November 28, [1919] 

My dear George, — Do not be surprised if you hear that 
I am out of the Cabinet soon, for I have been offered two 
fifty thousand a year places, and another even more. I 
don't want to leave if it will embarrass the President, but I 
do want something with a little money in it for awhile. . . . 
But I must see the President before I decide . . . and I 
don't know when that will be, now that he is sick. 

This life has a great fascination for everyone and I dread 
to leave it ; for anything else will bore me I am sure. I deal 
here only with big questions and not with details — with pol- 
icies that affect many, and yet I have but a year and a half 
more, and then what? Perhaps it is as well to take time 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 323 

by the forelock, tho' I do not want to decide selfishly nor 
for money only. I must go where I can feel that I am in 
public work of some kind. . . . 

... I have served him [the President] long and faithfully 
under very adverse circumstances. It is hard for him to 
get on with anyone who has any will or independent judg- 
ment. Yet I am not given to forsaking those to whom I 
have any duty. However we shall see. I write you this, 
that you may not be misled by the thought that there has 
been or is any friction. Of course you won't speak of it 
to anyone. 

I am so glad you are able to be out a little bit. "Ain't 
it a glorious feelin'?" The farm must look mighty good. 
Well, old man, goodnight, and God give you your eyes 
back ! With my warmest love, 

Frank 

To C. S. Jackson 
Oregon Journal 

Washington, December 29, 1919 

My dear Sam, — I hear from Joe Teal that your boy has 
been lost at sea, and I write this word, not in the hope that 
I can say anything that will minimize your loss, for all the 
kindly words of all men in all the world could not do as much 
as one faint smile from that boy's lips could do to bring a 
bit of joy into your heart. 

But you are an old, old friend of mine. It is more than 
thirty years since we dreamed a dream together which you 
were able to realize. We both have had our fortune in good 
and bad, and on the whole I think our lives have not added 
to the misery of men, but have done something toward 
making life a bit more kind for many people. And why 
should that boy be taken from you ? There is the mystery 



324 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

— if you can solve it you can solve all the other mysteries. 
I hope you have some good staunch faith, which I have 
never been able to get, that would enable me to look upon 
these things in humility, in the confidence that this thing 
we call a body is only a temporary envelope for a permanent 
thing — a lasting, growing thing called a spirit, the only 
thing that counts. If we can get that sense we can have a 
new world. I do not believe we will change this world much 
for the good out of any materialistic philosophy or by any 
shifting of economic affairs. We need a revival — a belief 
in something bigger than ourselves, and more lasting than 
the world. 

With my warmest sympathy, I am, yours as always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John Crawford Burns 

Washington, December 29, [1919] 

My dear John, — The manner in which you write assures 
me that you are very happy, notwithstanding your marriage 
and your new religion, for which I am glad. An even better 
assurance is the picture of the bride. By what wizardry 
have you been able to lure and capture so young, good, and 
intelligent-looking a girl? I presume she was fascinated 
by the indirectness of your speech, the touches of humor and 
your very stern manner. John, you are a humbug, you have 
made that aloofness and high indifference a winning asset. 
I shan't give you away. Only you fill me with a mortifying 
envy. 

As for your religion, various of your friends think it odd. 
1 think that you are a subject for real congratulation. A 
man who can believe anything is miles ahead of the rest of 
us. I would gladly take Christian Science, Mohammedan- 
ism, the Holy Rollers or anything else that promised some 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 325 

answer to the perplexing problems. But you have been 
able to go into the Holy of Holies and sit down on the same 
bench of belief with most of the saints — this is miraculous 
good fortune. I mean it. I am not scoffing or jeering. I 
never was more serious. 

This whole damned world is damned because it is standing 
in a bog, there is no sure ground under anyone's feet. We 
are the grossest materialists because we only know our 
bellies and our backs. We worship the great god Comfort. 
We don't think ; we get sensations. The thrill is the thing. 
All the newspapers, theatres, prove it. We resign ourselves 
to a life that knows no part of man but his nerves. We study 
"reactions," in human beings and in chemistry — recog- 
nizing no difference between the two — and to my great 
amazement, the war has made the whole thing worse than 
ever. John, if you have a religion that can get hold of 
people, grip them and lift them — for God's sake come over 
and help us. I know you can understand how people be- 
come Bolsheviks just out of a desire for defmiteness and 
leadership. The world will not move forward by floating 
on a sea of experimentation. It gets there by believing in 
precise things, even when they are only one-tenth true. I 
wish I had your faith — as a living, moving spirit. Some 
day I pray that I may get with you where you can tell me 
more of it and how you got ft. 

I am leaving the Cabinet, tho' the precise date no one 
knows, for the President is not yet well enough to talk about 
it. He seems to be too done up to stand any strain or worry. 
But I must have some money, for my years are not many, 
Anne is far from well, and Nancy is a young lady, and a very 
beautiful one. She has just come out and is quite the 
belle of the season, tho' like her father, too anxious for pop- 
ularity. 



326 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Great good luck of all kinds to you in 1920, old man — 
and do give me a line now and then. 

F. K. L. 

To Frank I. Cobb 
New York World 

Washington, [1919] 

My dear Frank, — I have read your speech on Prussian- 
izing the Americans, and I concur. Of course repression . . . 
promotes the growth of error. We are not going to destroy 
socialism, or prevent it from coming strong by refusing to 
answer it. 

But I have a notion that you have not expressed as directly 
as I should like : — That the newspaper is not influential 
enough to stop it and perhaps does not care to, sometimes. 
Where are the papers that are respected for their character ? 
They are few. The most of them are believed to be the 
allies of every kind of Satan. "They are rich; their ads. 
run them ; they pander to circulation, no matter of what 
kind, to get ads.", that is the answer of the plain people. 
If the papers were things of thought and not of passion, 
prejudice and sensation and interest, they could do the work 
that police and courts are called upon to do. They could 
effectively answer the agitator. But the people do not 
believe them when they cry aloud. Maybe I am wrong, but 
isn't there a grain, or a gram, of truth in this ? 

For a year and a half I have been bombarding Congress 
with a demand for a bill that would make a campaign, 
through the schools, against illiteracy. I have made dozens 
of speeches for it, written a lot, lobbied much, until Congress 
passed a law stopping my working up sentiment for it, by 
a joint resolution. How much sentiment has the press 
created? You had one or two editorials. The Times one. 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 327 

No one else in New York gave a damn. The Congressmen 
were not made to feel that those ignorant foreigners who were 
fifty-five per cent of the steel workers, must learn to read 
papers that were written in American, not in Russian or 
Yiddish or Polish or Italian. 

I tell you seriously we are not a serious people except when 
we are scared. "Rights of free speech, O yes! they must 
be preserved. Democracy has its balancing of forces." 
All this is forgotten when the government is at stake — our 
institutions. These mottoes and legends and traditions pre- 
suppose someone who will enlighten the people and a people 
that can be enlightened. Otherwise you will get the strong 
arm at work. It is inevitable. Has there been any meeting 
of editors to map a course that will truthfully reveal what 
Bolshevism is ? or how absurd the talk of wage-slavery is ? 
or why the miners strike ? or why this is the best of all lands ? 

Tell me why workmen don't believe what you print, unless 
it is some slander on a rich man, or some story that falls 
in with prejudices and hatreds? 

Answer me that and you will know why the people sit 
indifferent while papers are suppressed, speakers harried, 
and espionage is king. 

Mind you, I am not saying that you are alone to blame. 
Congress is. The States are. The cities are. The people 
are. They have let everything drift. What is our passion ? 
What do we love ? Do we think, or do we go to the movies ? 
The socialist takes his philosophy seriously. The rest of 
us have no philosophy that is a passion with us. 

But there, I have scolded enough. You are right, but 
you are not fundamental or basic or something or other, 
which means that you can't put out a fire unless you have a 
fire department that is on the job. Tenderly yours, 

F. K. L. 



328 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

Lane never outgrew his passionate belief in the moral 
responsibility of the press. To Fremont Older, when he 
took charge of the San Francisco Call, Lane telegraphed : — 

"There is no other agency that can serve our national 
purpose that is one-half as powerful as a free press, and no 
other that has one-half the responsibility. We need a press 
that will stand for the right, no matter whether its circu- 
lating or advertising is increased or not by such a position, 
and that means a press that includes in its understandings 
and sympathies the whole of society and serves no purpose 
other than the promotion of a happier and nobler people. 
Journalism is the greatest of all professions in a free country, 
if it is bent upon being right rather than being successful. 
I hope that you may be both." 



To Mrs. Louise Herrick Wall 

Watkins Glen, New York, [December, 1919] 

My dear Mrs. Wall, — I am reminded by your letter to 
Anne that I have said no word to you since that first word 
of attempt at support, which I threw out on the first day. 
I meant it all and more. Wall was always in my mind, as at 
heart, the truest Democrat I knew. He really lived up to the 
standard of the New Testament. He did love his neighbor 
as himself. He never did good or kindness out of policy, but 
always from principle, from nature — which can be said of 
very few in this world. He was without cowardice of any 
kind, and without hypocrisy. I believe he had no vanity. 
He had the pride of a noble man and lived as generously 
toward the world as I have ever known man to live. This 
might be said of one who was austere, but the dear, old 
Commodore was to me, and to us all, the very symbol of 
warmth. The one thing I criticised in him was his unwilling- 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 329 

ness that people should discover him for the fanciful, humor- 
ous, wise, and exquisitely tender man that he was. He did 
not leave an enemy, I know, unless that man was a scoundrel. 
And with all his reticence he impressed himself profoundly 
on hundreds. I know if there is another world that Wall and 
I will find each other, and he will be with the gladdest, 
gayest of the spirits. I hope you can look forward to such 
a meeting with the confidence that Anne has, which always 
astonishes me and makes me envious. He has gone to the 
one place, if any such place there is, where the greatest 
longing of his soul can be gratified — his love for justice. 

If you have a picture of him, no matter how poor, won't 
you let me have it, that I may hang it beside my work desk, 
and looking at it find inspiration and be reminded of the sane, 
loving, lovable, high-hearted chap whom I held as a brother ? 

Dear lonely woman, I wish I could speak one word that 
would lighten your sense of loss, in him and in your mother. 
I know that you are not lacking in courage, but stoutness 
of heart does not bring comfort, I know. How exceptional 
your loss because how exceptional your fortune — such a 
man and such a mother. Very sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mrs. M. A. Andersen 

Sunday, [December, 1919] 

. . . The whole of mankind is searching for affection, 
tenderness, — not physical love but sweet companionship. 
We could get along with fewer pianos and victrolas if we had 
a more harmonious society. We really don't like each other 
much better than Alaskan dogs. Now what is the reason 
for that ? Are we afraid of them stealing from us — our 
houses, sweethearts, or dollars ? Or are we so stupid that 
we don't know each other, never get under the skin to find 



330 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

out what kind of a fellow this neighbor is? Certainly we 
are self-centered and we wonder that people don't like 
us when we don't try to find what is likable about them — 
and keep stressing their unlikable qualities. 

All of which homily leads up to the Holidays. I hope 
that you will enjoy them. Nancy is having no end of a 
gay time, and knows how really good a time she is having, 
I do believe. She is the rarest combination of old woman 
and baby I have ever known, cynically wise, almost, and 
soft innocence. She has a dozen beaux and is extravagant 
about, and to, each. . . . 

The President is getting better slowly, but we commu- 
nicate with him almost entirely through his doctor (Grayson). 
I shall be mighty sorry to leave here, where we have so 
many friends, but my hope is to get enough to buy a place 
in California, one of these days, and settle down to the normal 
life of digging a bit in the soil and then digging a bit in the 
brain. 

Give my warmest regards to the Captain. You have 
ripened into a fine beauty and a great usefulness, and I hope 
that you will find serenity of mind and soul, which is all that 
the great have ever searched for. With much love, 

Frank 

To George TV. Lane 

[December, 1919] 

My dear George, — Things are going well notwithstanding 
the President's illness. No one is satisfied that we know 
the truth, and every dinner table is filled with speculation. 
Some say paralysis, and some say insanity. Grayson tells 
me it is nervous breakdown, whatever that means. He is 
however getting better, and meantime the Cabinet is running 
things. . , . 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 331 

Ned is here and having a good time with all his old girls, 
some of whom have married and are already divorced, so 
he feels an old man. Nancy is lovely and merry and quite 
a belle. She took with the Prince of Belgium, and was 
quite as happy as you would be with having caught a six- 
pound trout — just the same feeling, I guess. 

Politically things do not look interesting. There are no 
big men in the line except Hoover. The country wants some 
manly, two-fisted administrator and it doesn't care where 
he comes from. 

I hope your eye is better, dear old man. My love to 
Frances. 

F. K. L. 

The Dan O'Neill to whom the next letter was written, was 
a friend of early days. Lane always liked to recall this 
episode. O'Neill, a big elderly Irishman, was in the City 
employ, while Lane was City and County Attorney, and 
had formed for his "Chief" — as he lustily called him — 
a most disinterested affection. After Lane's defeat for 
Mayor of San Francisco, O'Neill came one day and asked 
for an interview. When greetings were over he stood 
hesitating and twirling his hat, until Lane said, "Well, Dan, 
what can I do for you?" 

"You see, Chief," he answered, "The wife and I were 
talking it over last night. We know how these damned 
campaigns of yours have been taking the money. You 
see, we have two lots of land — out there," with a jerk 
of the hat toward the great outside, "and a little house 
— and we're well and strong, and all the children doing fine 
at school — and we can, easy as not, put a mortgage on the 
house, for two or three thousand. We'd like it fine if you'd 
take it, until you get going again." 



332 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Lane did not have to mortgage his friend's house, but it 
was these "sweet uses of adversity," more than anything 
else, that tempered, for him, the pain of defeat. 

This friendship lasted to the end of his life. In 1915, 
when going back from California on a hurried trip, Lane 
wrote to O'Neill, "I did not see much of you and I am sorry 
I didn't. It was my fault, I know. Your dear old Irish 
face is a joy to me every time I see it, and whenever I go 
out you must not fail to turn up, else I shall be broken- 
hearted." 

When Lane was very ill in 1921, O'Neill came to pay his 
respects to the wife of his Chief. As she went out into the 
hallway of her friend's house, in San Francisco, the whole 
place seemed filled by O'Neills, for he stood there and all 
his three great sons — one a fire captain, and stalwart men 
all. It was a sad meeting and parting. 



To Dan J. O'Neill 

Washington, December 24, 1919 

My dear Dan, — I am delighted to get your nice letter. 
It is as charming a letter as I ever received, because you tell 
me of all the family and that they are doing well, and that 
you are in good health, and that you want me back with you 
— all of which makes me love you more and more. Give 
to the whole family my good holiday greetings. Make them 
earnest and hearty. 

I haven't got money enough, Dan, to pay my fare back 
after living here so long, and I shall have to make some before 
coming back there, but I hope to do it some one of these 
days. ... 

Dan, I know you have been a bad man, and I know you 
have been a good man ; and there will be a place in Heaven 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 333 

for you, old fellow. You have been an honest citizen, a 
credit to your country, and so have your children, and 
you will never know anyone who is fonder of you than I. 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hamlin Garland 

December 31, 1919 
My dear Garland, — I am going up to New York on the 
eleventh to talk to the moving picture people at the Waldorf- 
Astoria. I had them down here and had a resolution put 
through the Committees on Education of both House and 
Senate, asking the Moving Picture Industry to interest itself 
in Americanization, and I have been appointed at the head 
of a committee to take charge of this work. I have some 
schemes myself that I want very much to talk to you about 
regarding Americanization. 

I do not know how much time I will be able to give to this 
work because I have got to make some money, but I am 
going to use my spare time that way. Suppose when I get 
to New York I telephone you and see if we can not get 
together. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



To one of the Moving Picture Weeklies, Lane contributed 
this paragraph on Americanizing the foreign born: — "The 
one sure way to bring the foreign born to love this land of 
ours is to show our pride in its present, faith in its future, 
and interpret America to all in terms of fair play and 
square dealing. America gives men nothing — except a 
chance." 



334 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To Hugo K. Asher 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 3, 1920 

My dear Hugo, — I have not written you because my own 
plans must be determined by circumstances. I think, 
however, that I shall leave very soon. I hate to go because 
the work is so satisfactory. . . . 

Bryan has come back. What strength he will develop, 
no one can tell. He evidently has determined that he will 
not be pushed aside or disregarded. He has been, and will 
continue to be as long as he lives, a great force in our politics. 
People believe that he is honest and know he is sympathetic 
with the moral aspirations of the plain people. They dis- 
trust his administrative ability, but on the moral question, 
they recognize no one as having greater authority. 

... I hear there is talk among the business people 
of setting up a third party and nominating Hoover. Two 
things the next President must know — Europe and America, 
European conditions and American conditions. The Pres- 
ident of the United States must be his own Secretary of 
State. We need administration of our internal affairs and 
wise guidance economically. Hoover can give these. He 
has the knowledge and he has the faculty. He has the con- 
fidence of Europe and the confidence of America. He is not 
a Democrat, nor is he a Republican. He voted for Wilson, 
for Roosevelt, and McKinley. But he is sane, progressive, 
competent. The women are strong for him and there are 
fifteen million of them who will vote this year. It would 
not surprise me to see him nominated on either ticket, and 
I believe I will vote for him now as against anybody else. 

But I must quit talking politics because I am going out 
of it entirely, completely, and I really have been out of pol- 
itics ever since I left California. I have tried to take a 
broad non-partisan view of things which is one of the reasons 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 335 

I have had hard sledding. But I am going without a grouch, 
without a complaint or a criticism — with a great admiration 
for Wilson and with a thorough knowledge of his defects ; 
and with a more sympathetic attitude toward my colleagues 
than any can have who do not know the circumstances as 
well as I do. . . . Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Admiral Cary Grayson 

Washington, January 5, 1920 

My dear Admiral, — As you know, I am contemplating 
resigning. It has been my purpose to wait until such time 
as the President was well enough to see me and talk the 
matter over with him. I understand from Mr. Tumulty 
that the President is prepared to name my successor, and 
that it would not in any way add to his embarrassment to 
fill my place in the immediate future. I would like to know 
if this is the fact, for my course will be shaped accordingly. 
Two years ago I had an offer of fifty thousand a year which 
I put aside because I thought it my duty to stay while the 
war was on. When Mr. McAdoo resigned, this offer was 
renewed but I then thought that I should await the conclu- 
sion of formal peace, which all expected would come soon. 
While the President was West, I promised that I would 
take the matter up with him on his return, and since then I 
have been waiting for his return to strength. I need not 
tell you that I am delighted to know that he is in such con- 
dition now as to turn to matters that in the best of health 
are vexatious, if this is the fact. 

My sole reason for resigning is that I feel that I am en- 
titled to have assurance as to the future of my family and my- 
self. I have been in public life twenty-one years and have less 
than nothing in the way of private means. . . . And having 



336 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

given the better part of my life to the public, I feel that I 
must now regard the interest of those dependent upon me. 

I wish you would be perfectly frank with me, for I would 
do nothing that with your knowledge you would think 
would make against the welfare of our Chief. Cordially, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Herbert C. Pell, Jr. 
House of Representatives 

Washington, January 31, 1920 

My dear Congressman, — ... It is our boast and our 
glory that we have a form of government under which men 
can make their conception of society into law, if they can 
persuade their neighbors that their dream is one that will 
benefit all. There is nothing more absurd than to contend 
that the last word has been spoken as to any of our insti- 
tutions, that all experimenting has ended and that we have 
come to a standstill. . . . We are growing. But this does 
not mean that all change must be growth and that we can 
not test by history, especially by our own experiences and 
knowledge, the value of whatever is proposed as a substitute 
for what is. The dog that dropped the meat to get the 
shadow of a bigger piece is the classical warning. We are 
for what is, not because it is the absolute best but because 
it has worked well. It is sacred only because it has been 
useful. Until a system of government, or of economics, 
or of home life, can be demonstrated to be an improvement 
on what we have, we shall not hysterically and fancifully 
forsake those which have served us thus far. 

Our Government is not our master but our tool, adaptable 
to the uses for which it was designed ; our servant, respon- 
sive to our call. This makes revolution an absurdity. But 
it also makes a sense of responsibility a necessity. And while 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 337 

we may not have broken down in this regard we certainly 
have weakened. We have proceeded in the belief that 
automatically all men would come to see things as we do, 
have a sense of the value of our traditions and a conscious- 
ness of the deep meanings of our national experiences. The 
things we believed in we have not taught. Hence the need 
for such institutions as the Constitutional League which, 
however, can not do for each of us the duty that is ours of 
living the spirit of our Constitution. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Hon. Woodrow Wilson 
The White House 

Washington, February 5, 1920 

My dear Mr. President, — It is with deep regret that I 
feel compelled to resign the commission with which you saw 
fit to honor me, by appointing me to a place in your Cabinet, 
now almost seven years ago. If it will meet your conven- 
ience I would suggest that I be permitted to retire on the 
first of March. 

With the conditions which make this step necessary you 
are familiar. I have served the public for twenty-one years, 
and that service appeals to me as none other can, but I 
must now think of other duties. 

The program of administration and legislation looking to 
the development of our resources, which I have suggested 
from time to time, is now in large part in effect, or soon will 
come into effect through the action of Congress. 

I return this Department into your hands with very 
real gratitude that you have given me the opportunity to 
know well a working force holding so many men and women 
of singular ability and rare spirit. 

I trust that you may soon be so completely restored to 



338 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

health that the country and the world may have the benefit 
of the full measure of your strength in the leadership of 
their affairs. The discouragements of the present are, I 
believe, only temporary. The country knows that for Amer- 
ica to stand outside the League of Nations will bring neither 
pride to us nor confidence to the world. 

Believe me, my dear Mr. President, always, cordially 
and faithfully yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Frank W. Mondell 

Washington, February 13, 1920 

My dear Mr. Mondell, — I wish to acknowledge, with the 
warmest appreciation, your letter of yesterday, and to say 
that I am literally forced out of public life by my lack of 
resources. The little property that I have been able to save 
is all gone in an effort to make both ends meet, and I find 
myself at fifty-five without a dollar, in debt, and with no 
assurance as to the future. I assure you that it is with 
the deepest regret that I leave public life for I like it, and 
the public have treated me handsomely, especially the men 
in Congress with whom I have had to deal, and not the least 
of these, yourself. 

I should like to stay, especially so, that we could put into 
effect some of the legislation for which we have been fighting, 
such as the oil bill, the power bill, and the farms-for-soldiers 
bill. I shall leave a set of regulations as to the oil leases 
ready for operation. The power bill will come into effect 
soon, I hope. I am responsible for the three-headed com- 
mission, but it was the only chance I saw of getting any 
unity as between the different branches of the government. 

Letters are still coming in from the boys who want to go 
on farms, and I hope that we will be able to lead Congress 
to see that this is a farsighted measure. 



AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS 339 

I thank you very much for your many courtesies to me. 

I trust that your career may be one of still greater usefulness 

and expanding opportunity. With the warmest regards, 

cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Late in the year 1919, Lane wrote to James E. Gregg : — 
"... The soldier-farms bill has been reported favorably 
by the Committee on Public Lands to the House, but has 
not yet been taken up for consideration on the floor. . . . 
Of course, some of the opposition has been by those who say 
the plan does not do something for all of the soldiers, but 
this is hardly a good objection, as no other constructive 
suggestion seems to have been made by any one that would 
do anything for any of the soldiers, except the cash bonus, 
which I believe is altogether impossible, improvident, and 
not in the interest either of the country or the soldier." 

To Robert TV. De Forest 

Washington, February, 1920 

My dear Mr. De Forest, — I do not know that I have re- 
ceived another letter which has made me feel as conscious 
of the gravity of the step I have taken as has yours. I have 
accumulated much in twenty years of public life that ought 
to be forever at the service of the public, and if I were alone 
in the world I would not think of going out. But I must 
think now for a time in a narrower field. Your own career 
shows that without holding office a man may do a great good 
and give wide public service. Perhaps this opportunity 
may be mine. 

I shall be in New York soon and I hope very much to see 
you and see you often. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 



XII 
POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 

1920 

Suggestions to Democratic Nominee for President — On Election of Senators 
— Lost Leaders — Lincoln's Eyes — William James' Letters 

To William Phelps Eno 

Saugatuck, July 5, [1920] 

Here I am at your desk looking out of your window into 
your trees, up the gentle rise of your formal garden into the 
brilliant crown of rambler roses above the stone gateway. 

This is a very delightful picture. The sun is just begin- 
ning to pour into the garden. He is looking through the 
apple trees and having hard work to make even a splash of 
golden green upon the lawn, but the silver spruce and the 
tiara of roses get the full measure of his morning smile and 
are doing their best to show that they understand, appreci- 
ate, and are glad. Oh, it is a great morning ! 

And on the water side it has been even more stimulating. 
I have walked along the stone wall, the water is down, very 
low, the boat is stranded, like some sleeping animal, with 
its tether lying loose along the pebbly strand. The gulls 
are crying to each other that there is promise of a gullet- 
full. Nearer shore the fish are leaping — only one or two 
I think but they make just enough noise to make one realize 
that there is life in the smooth water, that it is more than 
a splendid silver mirror for the sun which streams across 

340 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 341 

it. I disturbed a solitary king-fisher as I went out to the 
wharf. He rose from his perch upon the rope, circled about 
for a minute and then settled back, on his watch for break- 
fast. 

It is altogether lovely, a quiet, gentle, kindly morning, 
such as you have often seen, no doubt, when Judah Rock 
is making its giant fight to rise triumphant from the sea. 

But this is not a bit of geologic prophecy nor a Chapter 
I. to a love story, that I am writing. This is a bread-and- 
butter letter. I have been your guest and I am telling you 
that I have enjoyed myself. But you, of course, wish some- 
thing more than the bald statement that I like your place 
and that your bread was good and your butter sweet. Yes, 
you deserve more, for this place is an expression of yourself. 
No one can be here and not see you at every turn, even 
though you may be right now in Paris "making the way 
straight." You have put your love of beauty, your re- 
strained love for color, and your exceptional sense of bal- 
ance into the whole establishment. It is a man's house — 
things are made for use ; the chairs will stand weight ; the 
couches are not fluff ; one can lean with safety on the tables. 
But everywhere the eye is satisfied. My bed is beautiful, 
French I fancy, yet it is comfort itself. The lamp beside 
my bed is a dull bit of bronze which does not poke itself 
into your sleepy eye, yet you know that it fits the need, not 
only for light but for satisfaction to the eyes after the light 
comes. And the bath tub — may I speak of a bath tub in 
a bread-and-butter letter ? — the bath tub is not too long 
— do you ever suffer from the long, long stretch into the 
cold water at your back and the imperfect support to the 
head which imperils your entire submergence ? — your 
bath tub is not too long, and I grab it on both sides to get 
out. And as I dry myself I look down into that garden of 



342 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

precise, trimmed and varied green upon which the rambler 
roses smile. 

It is well to have had money. No Bolshevism comes out 
of such a place as this. It makes no challenge to the envy 
of the submerged tenth. It has not ostentation. It gives 
off no glare, and it is all used. For men who can put money 
to such use, who do not over-indulge their own love for 
things of beauty, nor build for luxurious living, but mould 
a bit of seashore, some trees and a rambling house into an 
expression of their own dignified and balanced natures, for 
such men I am quite sure there is or will be, no social peril 
from the Red. 

And may I close with a word, an inadequate and most 
feeble word, as to the Lady of the House who so perfectly 
complements the beauty and the refinement of her setting. 
She would make livable and lovable a shack, and she would 
draw to it those who think high thoughts. She has an aura 
of sympathy and companionability which makes her one with 
the healing earth and the warming, encompassing sunshine. 

May you and she give many more sojourners as much of 
the right stimulus as you have given yours affectionately, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Roland Cotton Smith 

New York, July 9, [1920] 

My dear Padre, — Oh, that I could reply to you in kind, 
but alas and alack ! the gift divine has been denied me. My 
Nancy comes to me tomorrow — Praise be to Allah ! and 
I shall duly, and in appropriate and prideful language, I 
trust, present her with your mellifluous lines. 

When the spirits Good and Bad will permit me to visit 
Ipswich I cannot say. Are Doctors of the carnal or the 
spiritual ? They hold me. So soon as I was given a few 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 343 

ducats these banditti rose to rob me. Polite, they are, these 
modern sons of Dick Turpin, and clever indeed, for they con- 
trive that you shall be helpless, that you may not in good 
form resist their calculated, schemed, coordinated blood- 
drawing. And I had as lief have a Sioux Medicine man 
dance a one-step round my camp fire, and chant his silly 
incantation for my curing, as any of these blood pressure, 
electro-chemical, pill, powder specialists. Give me an 
Ipswich witch instead. Let her lay hands on me. Soft 
hands that turn away wrath. Have you such or did your 
ancestors, out of fear of their wives, burn them all ? 

Well, this is no way for a sober, sick, sedate citizen to be 
talking to a Man of the Cloth, even tho' he be on vacation. 

Have you read any of Leonard Merrick's novels? Con- 
rad in Quest of his Youth, for instance ? If not, do so now. 
They are what you literati would designate as G. S. — 
great stuff. 

Give me another cheering line, do ! For I live in a world 
that is not altogether lovely. 

F. K. L. 

To James M. Cox 
Democratic nominee for President 

New York City, July 25, 1920 

My dear Governor, — I shall presume upon your flatter- 
ing invitation to speak frankly, not in the hope that I may 
in any way enlighten a man of such experience and success, 
but that I may possibly accentuate some point that you 
may recognize as important, which in the rush of things, 
might be overlooked. If I should appear in the least di- 
dactic, I beg that you charge it to my desire for definiteness, 
and my inability to give the atmosphere of a personal con- 
versation. 



344 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

A Word as to Generosity 

The unforgivable sin in our politics is a lack of generosity. 
Smallness, meanness, extreme partisanship, littleness of 
any kind — these are not in accord with the American con- 
ception of an American leader. A clever thing may gratify 
a man's own immediate partisan following, but the impres- 
sion on the country at large is not good. We want a full, 
adequate appreciation of the fact that there is hardly more 
than a film that divides Republican from Democrat; in- 
deed, in that fact lies our hope of success. We must win 
first voters and Independents. 

Let me be concrete ; — The war was won by Republicans 
as well as Democrats. . . . Therefore, I would say, give 
generously of appreciation to the Republicans, who raised 
Liberty Loans, who administered food affairs, who put their 
plants at the Nation's service, who directed the various 
activities, such as aeroplane making, and transporting and 
financing during the war. . . . 

A day has come when partisanship with its personalities 
and bitterness does not satisfy the public. We have seen 
things on too large a scale now to believe in the importance 
of trifles, or in the adequacy of trifling men. 

We must have men who are large enough to be inter- 
national and national at the same time, to be politicians and 
yet American statesmen, to subordinate always the individ- 
ual ambition and the party advantage to the national good. 

The League of Nations 

I feel that we have not tried to interpret the League of 
Nations to our people in terms of America's advantage. 
We Democrats are looked upon as International visionaries 
because we have not been willing to deal practically with 
a practical situation. 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 345 

The League is not anti-national, it is anti-war ; its aim is 
to defer war and reduce the chances of war between nations. 
This is to be effected, not by creating a super-nation, or by 
binding us to abide by the decisions of a super-national 
tribunal, but by establishing the method and machinery by 
which the opinion of the world may become effective as 
against those inclined toward war. 

By adopting the League, we do not pledge ourselves to 
any war under any circumstances, without the consent of 
Congress. And because we have not been willing to say 
this, we are now in danger of losing the one chance the world 
has had to get the nations together. 

Loyalty to the President's principles does not mean loy- 
alty to his methods. They have been wrong as to the 
League, in my opinion. You could deal with Congress, 
even a Republican Congress, on this matter, I believe, and 
come out with the essentials. . . . 

Don't let Bryan get away from you, if you can help it, 
because he really represents a great body of moral force 
and opinion. But don't pay the price to Bryan or Wilson 
or Hearst or Murphy or any one else, of being untrue to 
your own belief as to the wise and practicable national pol- 
icy, that you may gain their support. 

There couldn't be a better year in which to lose, for some- 
thing real. You can not win as a Wilson man, nor as a 
Murphy man, nor as a Hearst man. The nation is crying 
out for leadership, not pussy -footing nor pandering. Be 
wrong strongly if you must be wrong, rather than be right 
weakly. You can only win as a Cox man, one who owns 
himself, has his own policies, is willing to go along, not with 
a bunch of bosses, but with any reasonable man, asks for 
counsel from all classes of men and women, does not fear 
defeat, and expects a victory that will be more a party vie- 



346 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

tory than a personal one, and more a people's victory than 
a partisan one. 

Your Enemies 

Pick a few enemies and pick them with discretion. 
Chiefly be for things. But be against things and persons, 
too, so that the nation can visualize you as leading in a 
contest between the constructive forces and the destructive 
critical forces. 

And the thing to be against is the man who is looking 
backward, who talks of the "good old days," meaning (a) 
money in politics, buying votes in blocks of five ; (b) hu- 
man beings as commodities, Homestead strikes, and in- 
structions how to vote in the pay envelop ; (c) privately 
controlled national finances as against the Federal Reserve 
System ; (d) taxation of the poor through indirect taxes on 
pretext of protecting industry ; (e) seventy -five cent wheat ; 
(f) dollar a day labor; (g) the saloon-bossed city; (h) no 
American Merchant Marine ; all goods carried abroad under 
foreign flags — those were the "good old days," for which 
the Standpat Republican is sighing. 

But the world has moved in the past twenty-five years, 
and America not only has moved it, but has kept in the 
lead. . . . 

What We Want 

A greater America — that is our objective. 

We want our unused lands put to use. 

We want the farm made more attractive through better 
rural schools, better roads everywhere, more frequent con- 
nection between town and farm, better means of distribution 
of products. 

We want more men with garden homes instead of tene- 
ment houses. 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 347 

We want our waters, that flow idly to the sea, put to use ; 
more stored water for irrigation, more hydro-electric plants 
to supply industries, railroads and home and farming activi- 
ties. There should be electric lights upon the farm, and 
power for the sewing machine and the churn. It can be 
done because it is being done on the best farms of the far West. 

We want our streams controlled so that they do not 
wash away our cities, farms, and railroads, and so as to 
redeem the submerged bottom lands for the next genera- 
tion. . . . 

We want fewer boys and girls, men and women, who can 
not read or write the language of our laws, newspapers, and 
literature, . . . that those who live with us may really be 
of us. . . . 

We should dignify the profession of teaching as the foun- 
dation profession of modern democratic life. . . . 

We want definite and continuing studies made of our 
great industrial fiscal and social problems. The framing of 
our policies should not be left to emotional caprice, or the 
opportunism of any group of men, but should be the result 
of sympathetic and deep study by the wisest men we have, 
irrespective of their politics. There should be industrial 
conferences, such as those recently inaugurated, to arrive 
at the ways by which those who furnish the financial arm 
of industry and those who furnish the working arm of in- 
dustry may most profitably and productively be brought 
into cooperation. . . . Through the study of what has been 
done we can give direction to our national thought and work 
with a will toward a condition in which labor will have 
recognition and be more certainly insured against the perils 
of non-occupation and old age, and capital become entitled 
to a sure return, because more constantly and productively 
used. 



348 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Then, too, we need a study made of the health conditions 
of our children, — of the reason for the large percentage of 
undeveloped and subnormal children who are brought to 
our schools, and the larger number who do not reach ma- 
turity. . . . Underfed boys and ignorant boys are the ones 
who turn to Bolshevism. We can not stand pat and let 
things drift without their drifting not to the "good old 
days" but to bad new days. 

Why should not our system of taxation be subject for 
the profoundest study ? . . . We must find ways by which 
the individual may have tools for production which his skill 
and foresight and thrift have created and yet take for so- 
ciety in taxes what society itself gives. . . . There must 
come to society an increasingly large portion of the wealth 
created by each generation through inheritance taxes. 
Thus all our boys and girls will start the race of life more 
nearly at the scratch. This will be for the making of the 
race and for the enriching of the whole of society. Yet 
there must be saved, surely, the call upon the man of talent 
for every ounce of energy that he has and every spark of 
imagination. 

We want our soldiers and sailors to be more certain of our 
gratitude and to have an opportunity to realize their own 
ambition for themselves. We must not be driven into any 
foolish or impossible course by the pressure of a desire to 
win their votes. On the contrary, the pressure should 
come from us who had not the opportunity to risk our lives, 
that those who did take such risk shall be highly honored. 
For those who will identify themselves with the tilling of 
the soil, there should be farms, small yet complete, for 
which they can gradually pay on long time. For others 
there should be such education for professional or indus- 
trial life as they desire. For others, a home, not a specu- 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 349 

lation in real estate, but a piece of that American soil for 
which they fought. For these things we can pay without 
extra financial strain, if we dedicate to this purpose merely 
the interest upon the monies which other nations owe us. 
The extent of our willingness to help these men is not to 
be measured by their request but rather by our ability 
and their lasting welfare. . . . 

We are to extend our activities into all parts of the world. 
Our trade is to grow as never before. Our people are to re- 
sume their old place as traders on the seven seas. We are 
to know other peoples better and make them all more and 
more our friends, working with them as mutually dependent 
factors in the growth of the world's life. For this day a 
definite foreign policy must be made, one that is fair; to 
which none can take exception. Our people shall go abroad 
for their good and the good of other lands, with their skilled 
hands and their resourceful minds, and their energetic cap- 
ital, and they must be assured of support abroad, as at 
home, in every honest venture. 

True Americanism 

America's ambition is to lead the world in showing what 
Democracy can effect. This would be my conception of 
the large idea of the campaign. It involves much more 
than the League of Nations. This is our hour of test. We 
must not be little in our conception of ourselves, nor yet 
have a conceit that is self-destructive. 

America must prove herself a living thing, with policies 
that are adequate to new conditions. . . . We wish an 
international settlement that will enable us to be more 
supremely great as nationalists. This is the significance of 
the League of Nations. It is a plan of hope. It is the only 
plan which the mind of man has evolved which any number 



350 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

of nations has ever been willing to accept as a buffer against 
devil-made war. ... It is a monumental experiment which 
this century and other centuries will talk of and think of 
and write of because it involves the lives of men and women 
under it, and there is the possibility of giving our full 
thought and energy and wealth to making life more enjoy- 
able and finer instead of more horrible and cruel. While 
other nations are in the mood, we should agree with them, 
that we may spend our lives and money in a rivalry of prog- 
ress rather than in a competition in the art of scientific 
boy-murder. There are times when war is the ultimate 
and necessary appeal, but those times should be made fewer 
by American genius and sacrifice. 

And our prestige and power should not be wasted at this 
critical time, because out of some fecund mind may come 
an abstract and legalistic plan for some other kind of League. 
Let us be practical. Let us go to the fullest limit with other 
nations who are now willing to join hands with us, yet 
never yielding the Constitutional Congressional control 
over our war making. . . . Let us take thought to-day of 
our opportunities else these may not exist tomorrow. . . . 
Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Timothy Spellacy 

August 2, 1920 

My dear Tim, — Here you are, when you are sick yourself, 
worrying about me. Now, don't give any concern to any 
matter excepting getting thoroughly well, just as soon as 
possible. You are doing too much. You are not resting 
enough, and you are worrying. You have got enough to 
take care of yourself and your family for the rest of your 
lives, you have the respect of every one who knows you, and 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 351 

the affection of every one who knows you well ; in fact, you 
have nothing to work for, and every reason to be contented. 
So I suggest that you learn, in your later years, how to bum. 

I have no doubt that Mike will come across something 
very good in Colombia, if he doesn't get the fever, or break 
his blooming neck. I have never seen so aggressive a group 
of old men as you fellows are. You will not admit that you 
are more than twenty-one. . . . 

With my warmest regards, as always cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

With the presentation of an Irish flag, August 10, 1920. 

To Edward L. Doheny, with the cordial esteem of Franklin K. 

Lane. 

This flag is a symbol. It stands for the finest thing in a 
human being — aspiration — the seed of the Divine. It 
represents the noblest hope of a thwarted and untiring peo- 
ple. It makes a call to the heart of every generous-minded 
man, and gives vivifying impulse to the home-loving of all 
races. It is a symbol of a people to whom most of the arts 
were known when England and America were forest wastes, 
whose women have made the world beautiful by their vir- 
tue, and whose men have made the world free by their 
courage. 

To Franklin D. Roosevelt 

New York, August, [1920] 

Dear old Man, — This is hard work — to say that I 
can't be with you on this great day in your life. 1 You know 
that only the mandate of the medical autocrats would keep 

1 Notification ceremonies following Franklin D. Roosevelt's nomination as Vice- 
President by the Democratic party. 



352 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

me away, not that I could do you any good by being there, 
but that you might know that many men like myself take 
pride in you, rejoice in your opportunity, and keep our faith 
in Democracy because out of it can come men of ideals like 
yourself. I know that you will not allow yourself to be- 
come cheap, undignified, or demagogical. Remember, that 
East and West alike, we want gentlemen to represent us, 
and we ask no man to be a panderer or a hypocrite to get 
our votes. Frankness, and largeness, and simplicity, and a 
fine fervor for the right, are virtues that some must preserve, 
and where can we look for them if not from the Roosevelts 
and the Delanos ? 

It is a great day for you and for all of us. Be wise ! 
Don't be brilliant. Get plenty of sleep. Do not give 
yourself to the handshakers. For now your word carries 
far, and it must be a word worthy of all you stand for. 

I honestly, earnestly ask God's blessing on you. As al- 
ways, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Our love to your dear Mother, — proud happy Mother, 
— and to Eleanor. 



To Mrs. George Ehle 

Katonah, September, 1920 

To the Ehle, — Now this is a pleasure to have a minute's 
talk with you in the cool under an apple tree. You are 
gay, with Grouitches, and other festive creatures, while I 
am glum, gloomy and lugubrious. You know this is a novel 
experience for me to be in care of two nurses and a doctor, 
not to speak of a wife ; but 1 am obedient, docile, humble, 
tractable, and otherwise dehumanized. The plan here is 
to follow my boy's statement of the modern prescription 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 353 

for women, " Catch 'em young ; treat 'em rough ; tell 'em 
nothing." Well, they don't catch me young, but otherwise 
the prescription is filled. They reduced me to weakness, 
dependence, and a sort of sour-mash, and now they say that 
on this foundation they will build me up. Tho' I am still 
to lose some weight, being only twenty-four pounds under 
my average for twenty years. I will emerge from this spot, 
if I emerge at all, a regular Apollo, and will do Russian 
dances for you on that lovely lawn under the mulberry tree. 
And what happy memories of that spot I do have, and they 
cluster about you, with your soft hand and your understand- 
ing eye and your sympathetic mouth. You don't mind my 
making love to you in this distant fashion do you? Well, 
this is a charming jail, but jail it is after all, for I can't flee, 
though all the leisure in the world were mine — and it irks 
an American eagle or eaglet. 

Dear Anne has been improving here. She now is jolly, 
tho' it has been hot. Responsibility kills her, and I thrive 
on it. 

I believe I will take that place we went to see on the She- 
paug. Ryan, my friend, is to manage it. Well, we have 
a place of refuge, eh ? where the wicked and the boring and 
the ununderstanding cannot pursue. 

But oh ! my dreams do not come true these days, the 
magic touch is lost, the Fairies have been hurt in their 
feelings, my Daemon has deserted, and instead of beauty 
and joy and power, sweet content and warm friendship, I 
am struggling merely to live — and to what end ? 

Please go into my room some morning early and look out 
to the gate, the cobwebs must be diamond-sprinkled on the 
circle at the doorway, the catalpa trees must stand like stiff, 
prim, proper, knickerbockered footmen, on either side of 
the hedge, the ground must rise in a very gradual swell and 



354 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

culminate in the rose-covered gate. Throw it a kiss for 
me — (I wonder if there could be any roses left ?) . All of 
it is a lovely bit of man's handiwork, and Mr. Eno should 
have been born poor so that his planning mind, conceiving 
things of beauty in regular and balanced form, could have 
been used by many. 

Tell him I got his nice letter and will drop him a line one 
day. With much love, 

Frank Lane 

To Isadore B. Dockweiler 

Washington, September 25, 1920 

My dear Dockweiler, — It is a great disappointment that 
I am not able to speak in California this year. I wished 
so much to say a word that might be helpful to Senator 
Phelan. I helped in his election six years ago, and I wanted 
to be able to say to those whom I then addressed, that 
Phelan had thoroughly made good in Washington. He has 
been strong, honest, courageous, loyal to California and 
the country, and at every minute he has been at the serv- 
ice of his constituents. That is much to say, isn't it? 
Well, every word is true. . . . 

These things I know, for I have watched him through the 
past six years and for many years before. Indeed, it is more 
than thirty years now since we first joined with boyish 
enthusiasm in the activities of the Young Men's Demo- 
cratic League, and always I have wondered at his willingness 
to make himself the target of so much criticism because of 
his loyalty to convictions that have not pleased those in 
political or social power. He thinks ; he does not take 
orders. And you can rely on his being superior to the par- 
tisan phase of any real issue. This self-respecting, or self- 
owned individual is the sort of man we need to promote in 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 355 

our political life, or else we will soon find ourselves back in 
the pre-Roosevelt days of political invertebrates. 

I found in Washington the secret of the exceeding great 
authority which the older states carry in Congress, they 
return their Senators and Congressmen, term after term, 
and give them opportunity to rise to positions of eminence 
in the national legislature. The usefulness of a Senator is 
not to be measured by the roundness of his periods, nor 
even by the soundness of his ideas. He must pass through 
a period of impatient waiting before his status is such that 
he can really have the opportunity to have his ideas con- 
sidered seriously. By returning men who have been faith- 
ful, the State strengthens itself in Washington and even- 
tually gains greatly in prestige, as in the case of Julius 
Kahn. Senator Phelan has now passed through this initial 
period of gaining status, and his future will be one of an 
assured and much strengthened position among his col- 
leagues. Not to return Phelan will mean a loss at Washing- 
ton that California can ill afford at this critical time, for 
in the national mind he is identified with her prime con- 
cerns. 

. . . These are to be most momentous times. . . . Just 
where we are going no one knows, but clearly the people 
here, as elsewhere, are bent upon testing the value of De- 
mocracy as a cooperative organization of men and women, 
and are determined to make of it a fuller expression of hu- 
man capacities and hopes. We must feel our way carefully 
at such a time, but we must act constructively, else there 
will sureiy come a dangerous radical reaction. Sympathy 
must be checked by wisdom, a wise knowledge of man's 
limitations and tendencies, that we do not take on burdens 
we cannot safely carry. Yet we must dare, and dare pur- 
posefully. What can this Democracy do for men and 



356 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

women — that is the super-question which rises like Shasta 
and follows one throughout the day, dominating every 
prospect. And the answer must be wrought out of the 
sober thought and the proved experience of our statesmen. 
. . . Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

In September, 1920, he wrote, — "Things look dark to 
me politically. The little Wilson (as distinguished from 
the Great Wilson) is now having his day. Cox is making 
a manly fight on behalf of the President's League, but the 
administration is sullen, is doing nothing. Cox will be de- 
feated not by those who dislike him but by those who dis- 
like Wilson and his group. This seems mighty unjust." 



To Hall McAllister 

Katonah, September 25 [?], 1920 

My dear Hall, — This paper is a concession to my love 
for color, it is not yellow, but golden, and to make the touch 
truly Californian I should write with a blue pencil. 

I cannot write as gaily or as bravely as you did, for I 
have been pretty well beaten down to my knees. My nights 
are so unforgivably bad — wakened up two or three times, 
always with this Monster squeezing my heart in his 
Mammoth hand — By God, it is something Dante over- 
looked. . . . 

Take my advice, dear Hall, and avoid doing any of the 
things which the 3793 Doctors I have paid tell me cause 
this thing — among them are : — smoking, eating, drink- 
ing, swearing, working. 

You can recover partially — not wholly under any cir- 
cumstances — if you arrive at a state of Nirvana before 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 357 

death. . . . Gay life this, my boy ! I've been so wicked 
and fast and devilish and hoggish and gluttonous and al- 
ways rotten and riotous that I needs must spend a few 
months in this agony by way of preliminary atonement be- 
fore I may get even a chance at purgatory. 

You know that sometimes in the most terrific crushing 
pain, I laugh, at the thought that my steady years of drive 
and struggle to help a lot of people to get justice, or a chance, 
should be gloriously crowned by an ironical God with an 
end that would make a sainted Christian, in Nero's time, 
regret his premature taking-off. . . . 

Tell that most charming of all women, who is your sister, 
that her noble man was in great good fortune ; and I envy 
him because the Gods showed their love for him even up to 
the last. The wicked, torturing devils respected his gay 
spirit as he passed along and forgot to fill him full of arrows, 
poisoned arrows, as he ran the gauntlet down to the River. 

Her letters are beauteous reflections of her thoroughbred 

soul, and they give delight to Anne and myself. . . . Yours 

as always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mrs. George Ehle 

Bethel, October [3], 1920 
That is so charming and gracious a letter that it must be 
answered within the day, not that any word in kind can be 
returned, but the spirit may be echoed. We may be short 
in words but not in feeling. 

Let me tell you, Lady Ehle, about this place. It is 
Nirvana-in-the- Wilderness, the Sacred, Serene Spot. Beau- 
tiful, for it is a ridge surrounded by mountains — or "mount- 
ings"— of gold and green, russet and silver. Noiseless, 
no dogs bark or cats mew or autos honk. Peaceful — no 



358 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

business. Nothing offends. Isn't that Nirvana ? No pov- 
erty. People independent but polite. Children smile back 
when you talk to them, and you do. And the sky has 
clouds that color and that cast shadows on purpling moun- 
tains and stretches of meadow. Yes, this is one lovely spot 
over which a man named Gehring presides, unofficially, 
modestly, gently ; he has given it purpose for being, for 
here he does good by healing, and some of his wealthy pa- 
tients have put up a handsome inn in his honor — and they 
have said so in a bronze tablet over the mantel. 

How much good he can do me I cannot say, but he is 
trying, Oh, ever so hard to touch my trouble-centre, and I 
shall give him a full chance yet awhile. 

Wouldn't it be splendid if Shepaug were assured, or any 
other place of simple beauty to which we could retire to 
commune with the things that, alas, one only discovers to 
be the really great things, the worth while things, late in 
life. Daily would we foregather beside that stream to 
build some kind of altar to the God of Things as we Hope 
they may sometime Be. . . . 

Give my regards to the Duke of Saugatuck and tell him 
that his picture on horseback is good enough to enlarge — 
and then I want one. 

And to you, The Ehle, may the peace that gay souls need 
and seldom get, and the joy that good souls long for, be 
with you always. And do write some more ! 

F. K. L. 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 

Bethel, [October 28, 1920] 

My dear B. I., — It has been along time since your letter 
came, but until now I have not felt that I could write. 
Most of the time I have been in pain and I have also been 



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POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 359 

much discouraged over the condition of my health. No one 
wants to hear a man talk of his aches and I haven't much else 
on my mind. I am beginning to crawl a bit health- wards, 
I think ; at any rate I am moving on that assumption. 

What a hell of a condition the land is in politically. Cow- 
ardice and hypocrisy are slated to win, and makeshift and 
the cheapest politics are to take possession of national af- 
fairs. Better even obstinacy and ego-mania ! Cox, I think, 
has made a gallant fight. He is to be beaten because Wilson 
is as unpopular as he once was popular. Oh ! if he had been 
frank as to his illness, the people would have forgotten every- 
thing, his going to Paris, his refusal to deal with the mild 
Reservationists — everything would have been swept away 
in a great wave of sympathy. But he could not be frank, 
he who talked so high of faith in the people distrusted them ; 
and they will not be mastered by mystery. So he is so much 
less than a hero that he bears down his party to defeat. 

And after election will come revolt in the Republican 
party, for it is too many-sided for a long popularity. 

I am sorry to be out of it all, but the Gods so willed. I 
did want to help Phelan. The country will think that what 
he has stood for, as to California matters, especially oil and 
Japan, has been repudiated if he is not returned. He was 
California incarnate in Washington. 

Remember me to the Lady and the Soldier. Always 
your friend, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John W. Hallowell 

Bethel, November 3, 1920 

My dear Jack, — You have so much idle time hanging, 
dragging, festooning on round and about your hands that 
I want to give you a job, something to do. Eh, what ! 



360 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I have taken it into my head, caput, cranium, that I will 
read Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and 
as the only copy here is too poorly printed to read, and 
furthermore as I wish to own said work myself, I would 
that you make purchase of same and send it to me. Now, 
I do not wish an expensive copy, nor a large copy, nor a 
heavy copy. Therefore I think it would be best to buy a 
good second-hand set, say in half-leather — perhaps you 
can get it in six or eight volumes — and it must not be 
heavy, because I read in bed. About the size of an ordi- 
nary novel would be very good, and pretty good sized type 
— leaded not solid. Yes, the more I think of a second- 
hand set, the better I like the idea — old binding but strong, 
old paper but light, old type but clear. Twelve dollars I 
enclose for a second-hand set. By devoting twenty dollars 
worth of time to the search I know you can get a second 
hand set for twelve dollars. That is uneconomical, but 
think of the fun you will have. I suggest to you that this 
was the very thing you needed to do to bring perfect con- 
tentment into your life. Search for Gibbon, pretty backs, 
good type, light in weight for twelve dollars. Oh what joy 
you will have ! Really I should be selfish enough to do it 
myself but now that I have said so much about it I can't 
withdraw this boon. . . . 

Well, get Gibbon and "with all thy getting get under- 
standing." 

F. K L. 

To John W. Hallowell 

Bethel, November 12, [1920] 

My dear Jack, — I said nothing of the kind to myself. 
This is what I said, "Now I want a Gibbon. Not a show- 
off set but a useful one — light and small and well bound. 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 361 

How can I get it? Cotter in New York? What does 
Cotter know of learning and books of learning? What 
interest does New York take in such things anyway ? There 
are second-hand stores there but they must be filled with 
novels and such trumpery. No one in New York ever read 
Gibbon — ninety-nine percent never heard of him. So 
why should I send to New York ? No, Boston is the place. 
There is the city of the Erudite, the Home of Lodge, and 
incidentally of Parkman, Bancroft, Thayer, Morse, Fiske, 
and all others who have minds to throw back into the other 
days, and make pictures of what has been. Every house 
there has its Gibbon, of course, and some must, in the course 
of nature, fall into the hands of the dealers. So to Boston, 
— and who else but Jack Hallowell who knows what a 
book is, how in respectability it should be bound, and what 
size book is a pleasure and what a burden. A man of learn- 
ing, identified with scholarship, through his athletic course 
in Harvard, and withal a man of business who will not pay 
more than a thing is worth. Ideal ! Hence the letter and 
consequent trouble to good Jack Hallowell, who as per usual 
"done his damnedest for a friend," as Bret Harte says, 
in writing a perfect epitaph. . . . 

The reason I sent twelve dollars needs explanation. I 
put that limit because a very handsome edition of eleven 
volumes sold for that price to a friend of mine. It was red 
morocco, tooled, etc., and I thought surely twelve dollars 
would buy something as good as I needed. 

Now you have the whole mysterious story. Make the 
most of it as Patrick Henry suggested to George III. 

I have your dear Mother's book and will write her when 
I have read it. I also have a letter saying that Hoover has 
named me as treasurer of his twenty-three million or bil- 
lion fund. . . . 



362 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Thank you for your kindness and write me as often as 
you can. . . . 

F. K. L. 

To Robert Lansing 

Bethel, Maine, November 10, [1920] 

My dear Lansing, — It is good to see that letter-head, but 
aren't you afraid to enter into competition with Mr. Tu- 
multy, who has now, I see, bought the old Shepard mansion 
and will settle in Washington. How do they do it with the 
high cost of living what it is ? . . . The transmutation of 
brass into gold is becoming a commonplace. 

To-night's paper speaks of Knox as probable Secretary of 
State. . . . Tell me where the opposition is to come from 
— who are to lead us ? . . . All possible leaders have been 
submerged, squelched, drowned out, in the past eight years. 
I wish the whole country had gone unanimously for Hard- 
ing. Then we might have started on a fresh, clean footing 
to create two parties that represent liberal and conservative 
thought. As it is, I think you will see Hearst and Johnson 
and La Follette try to capture the radicals of both parties 
and make a new party of their own. Then I shall be with 
all the rascals I have been fighting since boyhood — the 
Wall Street rascals — as against the other group. But 
maybe the Lord cares a bit for us after all. 

I mend very slowly, but I delight in your recovery and 
wonder at it. . . . I do beg you will give me all the gossip 
of Washington that you can, for I am here in a wilderness, 
beautiful but not exciting. As always, 

F. K. L. 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 3G3 

To Carl Snyder 

Bethel, November 12, [1920] 

Dear Carl, — This is extremely disagreeable business, 
this of repairs and restoration. I suppose I am doing fairly 
well considering that I have been more than half a cen- 
tury getting my gearings askew and awry. But I am taking 
orders now and say "Thank you," when I get them. Just 
when I shall be well enough to take hold again is not yet 
discoverable. 

Strange how little news there is when you are above the 
clouds. One must be local to be interested in ninety per- 
cent of what the papers print. Make me a hermit for a 
year and I could see things in the large I believe, and ignore 
the trifles which obscure real vision. But a monk must be 
checked by a butcher. The ideal must be translated into 
the possible. "Man cannot live on bread alone" — nor 
on manna. 

Outside it is snowing beautifully, across an insistent sun, 
the fire is crackling and I do not know that I am ill but for 
the staring bottles before me. 

Give me a line when you have a free minute — and take 
to your Beautiful Lady my warm regards. 

F. K. L. 

To William R. Wheeler 

Bethel, 17 [November], 1920 

My dear Bill,— ... I am mighty sorry to hear about 
the Lady Alice Isabel. Funny that these women are like 
some damn fools, like myself, and do things too strenuously, 
and then go bang. Damn that Irish temperament, anyway ! 
O God, that I had been made a stolid, phlegmatic, non- 
nervous, self-satisfied Britisher, instead of a wild cross be- 
tween a crazy Irishman, with dreams, desires, fancies, and 



364 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

a dour Scot, with his conscience and his logical bitterness 
against himself, — and his eternal drive ! 

I can't tell you anything new about myself. I hope it is 
not a delusion that I am growing slowly better. I cultivate 
that idea anyway. . . . 

It was a slaughter, the election, and properly did it come 
to us. Now be wise and you can have this land for many 
years. But foolish conceit will put you out in four. ... I 
wish you Republicans had carried all the South. I am glad 
for Lenroot — very ! . . . But Phelan's defeat has about 
broken my heart and for Henderson and Chamberlain and 
Thomas I am especially grieved. Well, it will be a changed 
world in Washington, and I'm sorry I can't be in it and of 
it. 

Anne has gone to Washington to see Nancy who has not 
been well, so I am alone but not for long. I get on all right. 
God bless you, my dear old chap, and do rest awhile be- 
neath your own fig tree. My love to Alice. Affectionately 
as always, 

F. K. L. 

To George Otis Smith 

Bethel, [November] 18, [1920] 

Dear George Otis, — I love this Maine of yours. It is 
beautiful, and its people are good stuff — strong, whole- 
some, intelligent young men. I like them greatly. I'd be 
content to sit right down here and wait for whatever is to 
come. It is a place of serenity. There is no rush, yet peo- 
ple live and the necessary things get done. It doesn't 
have any Ford factories, but I rather fancy it makes the 
men who go West and make the factories. 

The autumn has been one long procession of gay banners 
on the hillsides, and now that the snow has come the pines 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 365 

are blue and the mountains purple; and mountains five 
thousand feet high are just as good, more companionable, 
than mountains fifteen thousand feet high. What is more 
lovely, stately and of finer color than a line of these receding 
hills which walk away from you, as if they continued clear 
across the continent ? 

I must get out against my wish, to have a lot more testing 
done — for this doctor differs with the others — and I 
rather think he is right. But I hope to get back here and 
enjoy this air. No wonder this stock was for prohibition, 
the air itself is an intoxicant, especially when the snow is 
on the ground and it comes to you gently ; it is as bracing 
as a cocktail, not a sensuous wine like the Santa Barbara 
air — tell Vogelsang this — but I presume more like the 
High Sierras, where the fishing is good. 

I shall read your speeches with the deepest interest. 
Keep up the publicity. It affects Congress and it justifies 
the good doctrine we have preached. Cordially, 

F. K. Lane 

Have read the speeches and they are everything they 
should be. Right theory, clear statement, conclusive facts. 
A few too many figures perhaps, you should keep your prime 
figures in the air longer so they can be visualized. This 
may be called juggling figures in the right sense. 

Lane 

To George W. Wicker sham 

Bethel, Maine, 18 [November, 1920] 

My dear G. W., - - 1 have your good letter. By 'good' I 
mean many things — well done as a bit of sketchy composi- 
tion, a welcome letter, kindly also in spirit, cheering, timely, 
telling of things that interest the receiver, one, too, having 



366 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

the flavor of the household whence it comes, altogether a 
good letter. I had one also from Her ; which I brutally 
answered with a preachment — in pencil, too, for I can't 
write with comfort at a desk and, after all, what have white 
paper and ink in common with these woods ? I am for 
harmony — a reconciler, like Harding. . . . 

Root, as you say, would give a good smack to the meal. 
The country would at once say Harding knows how to set 
a good table. But tell me — will he be a Taft? a McKin- 
ley ? a Hayes ? or a Grant ? Pshaw ! why should I ask such 
a question ? Who knows what a man will turn out to be ! 
Events may make him greater than any, or less. A war, a 
bullet, a timely word of warning to a foreign power, a fierce 
fight with some unliked home group, the right sort of a deal 
on postal rates with newspapers and magazines — any one 
of these might lift him into a national hero ; while a sneaking 
act revealed, a little too much caution, a period of business 
depression, would send him tumbling out of the skies. 

These be indeed no days for prophesying — Wilson gone, 
Clemenceau gone, Venizelos gone, — Lloyd George alone 
left ! The wise boy had his election at the right moment, 
didn't he? Surely statesmanship is four-fifths politics. 
Harding's danger, as I see it, will lie in his timidity. He 
fears ; and fear is the poison gas which comes from the Dev- 
il's factory. Courage is oxygen, and Fear is carbon mon- 
oxide. One comes from Heaven — so you find Wells says, 
— and the other would turn the universe back into primeval 
chaos. Wilson, be it said to his eternal glory, did not fear. 
They send word to me from the inside that he believed in 
Cox's election up to the last minute, although the whole 
Cabinet told him defeat was sure. He "was right, and right 
would prevail" — surely such faith, even in oneself, is al- 
most genius ! 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 367 

I am glad you put Lincoln first in your list of great Amer- 
icans. I decided that question for myself when I came to 
hang some pictures in my library. Washington or Lin- 
coln on top ? And Lincoln got it. I have recently read 
all his speeches and papers, and the man is true from the 
first day to the last. The same philosophy and the same 
reasoning were good in 1861 as in 1841. He was large 
enough for a great day — could any more be said of any 
one? 

Lincoln made Seward and Chase and Stanton and Blair 
his mates. He did not fear them. He wished to walk with 
the greatest, not with trucklers and fawners, court satellites 
and panderers. His great soul was not warm enough to 
fuse them — they were rebellious ore — but his simplicities 
were not to be mastered by their elaborate cogencies. 

McKinley was simple in his nature, at bottom a dear boy 
of kind heart, who put his hand into the big fist of Mark 
Hanna and was led to glory. 

Is Harding great and masterful in his simplicity, or trust- 
ful and yielding? and if the latter where is the Hanna? 
Well, I don't want to die in these next few months, anyway, 
till some questions are answered. This would be a part of 
my Cabinet if I were Harding : — Root, State ; Hoover, 
Treasury ; Warren of Michigan, Attorney-General ; Wood, 
War; Willard (of Baltimore & Ohio), Postmaster-General; 
Hays, Labor ; Lowden, Interior ; Weeks, Navy. 

I would put you and Taft on the Supreme Bench and 
scour the country for strong men for the Commissions 
which have mostly third-rate men on them. 

Well, chat with me some more for I am much in the house 
now that snow has come, and reading what Colonel Gibbon 
has to say as to the Fall of Rome is not what you would call 
current literature, tho' much of it has the charm of gossip. 



368 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

You enviously write of my opportunity to read and contem- 
plate. I have done some of both. But that's a monk's 
life, and even a monk has a cell of his own, and a bit of gar- 
den to play with ; and he can think upon a God that is his 
very own, an Israelitish Providence; and, in his egotism, 
be content. Yes, with a cell and a book and a garden and 
an intimate God, one should be satisfied to forego even 
health. But I hold with old Cicero that the "whole glory 
of virtue is in activity," and therefore I call my discontent 
divine. 

You speak of great Americans, and have named all four 
from political life. I concur in your selection. Now what 
writers would you say were most distinctly American in 
thought and most influential upon our thought, men who a 
hundred years hence will be regarded not great as literary 
men but as American social, spiritual, and economic phi- 
losophers? It occurs to me that this singular trio might 
be selected — Emerson, Henry George, and William James. 
What say you ? 

Say "Hello" to the young Colonel for me. 

F. K. L. 

Lincoln haunted Lane's imagination, the humor, friend- 
liness, loneliness, and greatness of the man. This — written 
for no formal occasion but to express part of his feeling — 
has found its way to others who, too, reverence the great 
American. 

Lincoln's Eyes 

I never pass through Chicago without visiting the statue 
of Lincoln by St. Gaudens and standing before it for a mo- 
ment uncovered. It is to me all that America is, physically 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 369 

and spiritually. I look at those long arms and long legs, 
large hands and feet, and I think that they represent the 
physical strength of this country, its power and its youthful 
awkwardness. Then I look up at the head and see quali- 
ties which have made the American — the strong chin, the 
noble brow, those sober and steadfast eyes. They were the 
eyes of one who saw with sympathy and interpreted with 
common sense. They were the eyes of earnest idealism lim- 
ited and checked by the possible and the practicable. They 
were the eyes of a truly humble spirit, whose ambition was 
not a love for power but a desire to be supremely useful. 
They were eyes of compassion and mercy and a deep un- 
derstanding. They saw far more than they looked at. 
They believed in far more than they saw. They loved men 
not for what they were but for what they might become. 
They were patient eyes, eyes that could wait and wait and 
live on in the faith that right would win. They were eyes 
which challenged the nobler things in men and brought out 
the hidden largeness. They were humorous eyes that saw 
things in their true proportions and in their real relation- 
ships. They looked through cant and pretense and the great 
and little vanities of great and little men. They were the 
eyes of an unflinching courage and an unfaltering faith ris- 
ing out of a sincere dependence upon the Master of the 
Universe. To believe in Lincoln is to learn to look through 
Lincoln's eyes. 



To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 

Bethel, 18 [November, 1920] 

My dear B. I., — From both ends of this continent we talk 
to each other. We have both retired from active things 
and can with some degree of removal, and from some alti- 



370 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

tude, look upon the affairs of men. Frankly, it challenges 
all my transcendental philosophy to convince me that 
"deep love lieth under these pictures of time." And yet I 
must so believe or die. It is a disheartening time — Wil- 
son, a wreck and beaten. Clemenceau, beaten and out. 
And now Venizelos gone. Only Lloyd George, the crafty, 
quick-turning, sometimes-lying, never-wholly-frank poli- 
tician left, because he called his election when spirits had 
not fallen. 

And little men take their places, while Bolshevism drives 
Wrangel into the sea, possesses all Russia and Siberia, and 
is a success politically and militarily, tho' a failure eco- 
nomically and socially. We have passed the danger of red 
anarchy in America, I think, tho' no one should prophesy 
as to any event of to-morrow. Communism, and socialism 
with it, have been made to pause. Yet nothing construc- 
tive is opened by the world for men to think upon, as a 
means of bettering their lot and answering the questions 
flung to them by Russia, Germany, England, and our own 
home conditions. 

I can see no evidence of constructive statesmanship on 
this side the water, excepting in Hoover. The best man in 
Congress is Lenroot, and he writes me that unless the Re- 
publicans do something more than fail to make mistakes 
that the Democrats will take the power from them in an- 
other four years. But I am nothing for parties. I cannot 
wait for an opposition to come in. I would like to see the 
Republicans now address themselves to the problems of the 
world at large and of this land. If Knox is to be Secretary 
of State, as the rumor is, we will have Steel Trust Diplo- 
macy, — which will give us safety abroad, which is more 
than we have had for some years — but it will be without 
vision, without love for mankind. Root would give the 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 371 

Republicans great assurance and confidence. He would 
make them smack their lips and feel that Harding was not 
afraid of the best near him. Hoover may or may not have 
a Cabinet place, but his brain is the best thing working in 
America to-day, on our questions. If Penrose and Co. beat 
him they will regret it. 

If I were Harding I'd put Root, Lowden, Wood, Hoover, 
and Johnson if he wanted it, into my Cabinet and I'd gather 
all the men of mind in the country and put them at work on 
specific questions as advisors to me, under Cabinet officers. 
One group on Taxes and Finance, one on Labor and Capital, 
one on Internal Improvements, one on Education and 
Health. And have a program agreeable to Congress, 
which is sterile because it is a messenger-boy force for 
constituents. 

The Democrats could do this if they had the men, — 
but look over the nation and see how short we are of talent 
of any kind. It may be an opposition party but it has no 
force, no will, no self-confidence. It hopes for a miracle, 
vainly hopes. It cannot gather twenty first-rate minds in 
the nation to make a program for the party. I tried it the 
other day — men interested in political affairs, outside 
Congress — try it yourself. Get twenty big enough to 
draft a national program of legislation for the party. I 
sent the suggestion to George White, chairman of the Na- 
tional Committee, and gave him a list, and at the head I 
put you and President Eliot, classing you both as Demo- 
crats, which probably neither of you call yourselves now, 
tho' both voted for Cox. . . . 

If I get to California I must see you. But I shall play 
my string out here before trying the Western land. My 

best regards to the Lady. Yours always, 

Lane 



372 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 
To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt 

Bethel, Maine, [November, 1920] 

To the dear Roosevelts, — ... You realized what was 
coming, but I fear Cox did not ; could not believe that his 
star would not pull through. I wish Georgia and Alabama 
had gone, too. The American born did not like Wilson 
because he was not frank, was too selfish and opinionated. 
The foreign born did not like his foreign settlements. So 
they voted "no confidence" in his party. What we will do 
in this land of mixed peoples is a problem. Our policies 
now are to be determined by Fiume and Ireland — not by 
real home concerns. This is dangerous in the extreme. 
Demagogues can win to power by playing to the prejudices 
of those not yet fully American. ... As always, 

F. K. L. 

To Lathrop Brown 

Bethel, [November] 20, [1920] 

My dear Lathrop, — You are wrong, dead wrong, vi- 
ciously, wilfully wrong. I do like this exact science busi- 
ness. I worked at it and in it on the railroad problems for 
seven years. There is only one thing that beats it, puts it 
on the blink, and that is inexact human nature which does 
wicked things to figures and facts and theories and plans 
and hopes. Prove, if you will, that there is no margin at all 
over wages, and a nominal return on capital, and you do not 
kill the desire of someone to run the shop. . . . 

Talking of business men, what about the Shipping Board ? 
O, my boy, they have something to explain — these Hur- 
leys and Schwabs ! . . . How does this sound to you ? 
They let their own tanks lie idle, commandeered those of 
Doheny and rented them to the Standard Oil — so that 
they could bid when Doheny couldn't — eh, what ? . . . 

F. K. L. 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 373 

To Timothy Spellacy 

Bethel, [November] 22, [1920] 

My dear Tim, — I hear from Mike that you are not in 
New York, and so I am writing you out of "love and affec- 
tion," as I hope to see Mike but won't see you when I go to 
New York for Thanksgiving. It was my hope that we 
three could have a good talk over Mike's Colombia plans, 
but do not trouble yourself with these business concerns. 
Get well — that's the job for both you and me. We have 
been too extravagant of ourselves, and especially you, you 
big-hearted, energetic, unselfish son of Erin ! Eighteen 
years I have known you and never a word or an act have I 
heard of or seen that did not make me feel that the cam- 
paign for Governor was worth while, because it gave me 
your acquaintance, friendship, affection. And Ned and 
George love you as I do. When I get mad, as I do some- 
times, over something that the Irish do, I always am 
tempted to a hard generalization that I am compelled to 
modify, because of you and Mike and Dan O'Neill, in San 
Francisco - - and a few more of the Great Irish — .... 

Well, my dear fellow, drop me a line when you feel like it 
and be sustained in your weakness by the unfaltering affec- 
tion of thousands who know you, among them — 

Franklin K. Lane 



To Frank I. Cobb 

New York World 

New York, December 6, [1920] 

Dear Frank, — You are right, but too far ahead. We 
must come to Cabinet responsibility, and I am with you as 
an agitator. Twenty years may see it. 

This morning you chide the Republicans for not having 
a program. Good God, man, why so partisan? What 



374 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

program have we? Will we just oppose; vote "Nay," to 
all they propose ? That way insures twenty years as "outs " 
— and we won't deserve to be in. What we lack is just 
plain brains. We have a slushy, sentimental Democracy, 
but don't have men who can concrete-ize feeling into policy, 
if you know what that means. A program — a practicable, 
constructive program — quietly drawn, agreeable to the 
leaders in both Houses, pushed for, advocated loudly ! 
That's our one hope — Agree ? Yours cordially, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To John G. Gehring 

New York, December 9, [1920] 

Well, my dear Doctor, here I am at another cross-roads. 
... I leave ... in a day or two with a new dietary and 
some good advice. The latter in tabloid form being : — 
"Drop business for a time, go into it again slowly, and 
gradually creep into your job." All of which is wise, and 
commends itself greatly to my erstwhile mind, but is much 
like saying, "Jump off the Brooklyn bridge, slowly." 

... I am not resigned, of course. Because I cannot 
see the end. Definiteness is so imperative to some natures. 
However, I think that I have done all that an exacting Deity 
would demand, and cannot be accused of suicide, if things 
go badly. 

Our plan is to go to Washington to see some old friends 
thence south and so to California, for a couple of months. 
Delightful program if one had health, but in exchange I 
would gladly take a sentence to three months in a chain- 
gang on the roads. 

One of my friends has suggestively sent me Burton's 
Anatomy of Melancholy. To offset it I went out at once 
and bought a new suit of bright homespun clothes and a red 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 375 

overcoat — pretty red. In addition I have a New Thought 
doctor giving me absent treatment. I am experimenting 
with Hindu deep breathing, rhythmical breathing, in which 
the lady who runs this hospital is an adept. And what 
with an osteopath and a regular and a nurse and predigested 
food, I am not shirking. If melancholy gets the better of 
me now — Kismet ! 

Tell your dear Lady that it was infinitely good of her to 
write, (and she has, I may say, quite as brilliant a pen-style 
as speech.) And one day I shall write her when the world 
looks better. My best reading has been William James' 
Letters; and that which amused me most a new novel, en- 
titled Potterism, by Rose Macauley, which cuts into the 
cant and humbug of the world right cruelly. 

I see your beautiful serene landscape and envy you. 
And I envy those who hear your hearty chuckle each morn- 
ing in the Inn. As always, 

F. K. L. 

To John W. Hallowell 

New York, December 9, [1920] 

Dear Jack, — I have tried out New York again and find 
it lacking as before. No help ! They do not know. ... So 
I am going to California. ... I wish I were to be near you 
— you really have a special old corner in all that is left of 
my heart. And one of these days we'll indulge ourselves in 
a good time — a long pull together again. 

I have been reading William James' Letters — and real 
literature they are — far better than all your novels. What 
a great Man — a mind, plus a man. Not to have known 
James in the last generation is to have missed its greatest 
intellect ; Roosevelt and James and Henry George were the 
three greatest forces of the last thirty years. Sometime 



376 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

when you come across a good photo or engraving or wood- 
cut, or something, of James, will you buy it and send it to 
me ? I want a human one — not a professional one. I 
guess he couldn't be the pedantic kind anyway. 

Billy Phillips has a new baby-boy born Monday. 

My plan is to leave here in a week, go to Washington and 
see Nancy, and get a glimpse of some of my old people in 
the Department, thence to South Carolina and then prob- 
ably California for two or three months. Ah me — most 
people would think this luxury — I think it hell ! But it 
may be for my great spiritual good. Certainly if I could 
have you to walk with for these months, and more of Wil- 
liam James to read, I could take a step or two forward. 

Have also been reading a bit of Buddhism lately. It is 
too negative — that is almost its chief if not its only defect, 
as an attitude toward life. It won't make things move 
but it will make souls content. And I can't get away from 
the thought that we are here as conquerors, not as pacifists. 
I can't be the latter, save in the desire. 

Peabody dropped in yesterday from Chicago. (I have 
forgotten whether you knew him well or not.) Able chap, 
fond of me, as I of him. My boy works for him. He sent 
me a gorgeous edition of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy 
which I have always wanted, largely because it is one of the 
curiosities of the world. . . . 

Write me as often as your Quaker spirit moves you to 
utterance. Your dinner got quite a send-off in these pa- 
pers, which is something, for New York to recognize Bos- 
ton ! Terribly tough job though. Poor babies ! Hard 
to believe in a good God and a kind God, isn't it ? 

I hear talk of shoving Hoover outside the breastworks. 
Fools ! Fools ! Best for him but worse for the country. 
Whole question of Republican success turns on the largeness 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 377 

of Harding. I don't ask a Lincoln — much less will do. 
If he is only a smooth-footed politician he will fail. So far 
he has been the gentleman. . . . 

My love to your whole circle, from Grandmother down. 
Affectionately, 

F. K. L. 

To John G. Gehring 

Rochester, Minnesota, December 31, [1920] 

My dear Padre, — It is the last night of an unhappy year. 
Never do I wish for such another. No joy — defeat, dreary 
waiting. These words describe not merely my personal 
history and attitude but fairly picture those of the world. 
It took guts to live through such an unillumined, non- 
productive, soul-depressing year. Did any good come out of 
it ? Yes, to me just one thing good — I came to know you, 
your Lady and the beauteousness of Bethel. And after all 
a man does not do any better in any year than make a 
friend. No man makes seventy friends in a life-time, does 
he ? So I must not repine nor let the year go out in bitter- 
ness. On the credit side of my account book I have some- 
thing that can be carried over into 1921, whereas most 
people can only carry over Hope. 

I hope there is something significant and more than sug- 
gestive in my turning up here on the last day of the year for 
examination — "Getting a ready on" for a New Year — 
that's what you would optimistically shout if you were here, 
I know. And that is my Goodbye word to 1920 — "You 
haven't beaten me, and I have lived to take your brush." 

I am being ground and wound and twisted and fed into 
and out of the Mayo mill, and a great mill it is. Of course 
they are giving me a private view, so to speak. Distin- 
guished consideration is a modest word for the way in which 



378 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

I am treated — not because of my worth but because of 
my friends — . Those men are greater as organizers, I 
believe, than as workmen, which is saying much indeed, 
for they are the surgeons supreme. . . . Two to three 
hundred people, new people, a day pass through [their 
shop]. Sixty to seventy thousand a year received, ex- 
amined, diagnosed, treated perhaps, operated on (fifty per 
cent), and cared for. The machinery for this is colossal 
and superbly arranged. 

Dr. Mayo told me to come over at two o'clock and reg- 
ister. ... I stood in line and was duly registered, telling 
name, and other such facts, non-medical. Then a special 
guide took me to Dr. Mayo, who had already heard my 
story at the hotel but who wished it in writing. Ac- 
cordingly, I was presented to a group of the staff and 
one man assigned as my escort. I answered him a 
thousand questions, touching my physical life for fifty- 
six years. Then to the tonsil man, who saw a distinct 
"focus," now there, a focus in the tonsils! Nose and ears 
without focus or focii or focuses. Down an elevator, 
through a labyrinth of halls, down an inclined plane, up a 
flight of steps, two turns to the left and then a group of the 
grumpiest girls I ever saw or heard or felt. They were good 
looking, too, but they didn't care to win favor with mere 
males. They had a higher purpose, no doubt. They 
openly sneered at my doctor escort. They lifted their eye- 
brows at my good-looking young son, and they told me 
precisely where to sit down. I was not spoken to further. 
My ear was punched and blood was taken in tubes and on 
slides by young ladies who did not care how much of my 
blood they spilled or extracted. They were so business- 
like, so mechanical, so dehumanized, these young ladies 
with microscopes! One said cryptically "57," another 



POLITICAL COUNSEL — LINCOLN'S EYES 379 

said "53." I was full of curiosity but I did not ask a ques- 
tion. They tapped me as if I were a spring — a fountain 
filled with blood — and gave me neither information, 
gaiety or entertainment in exchange. Each one I am con- 
vinced has by this life of near-crime, which she pursues for 
a living, become capable of actual murder. 

Thus has my first day gone. It is cold here — slushy 
underfoot, snow dirty, sky dark. How different from a 
place we know ! 

There are one hundred and fifty physicians and surgeons 
in the clinic, and Heaven knows how many hundred em- 
ployees. No hospitals are owned and run by the Mayos; 
all these are private, outside affairs. The side tracks are 
filled with private cars of the wealthy. Scores of resi- 
dences, large, small, fine, and shabby are little hospitals. 
The town has grown 5,000 in five years, all on account 
of the Mayos, these two sons of a great country doctor 
who without a college education have gathered the world's 
talent to them. 

I am tomorrow to be medically examined further, to the 
revealing of my terrible past, my perturbed present, and 
pacific future. The result of which necromancy I shall 
duly report. I am afraid that they will not find that an 
operation will do good, if so I shall truly despair. And if 
they decide for the knife, I shall go to the guillotine like 
the gayest Marquis of the ancient regime. Yes, I should 
do better for I have my chance, and he, poor chap, had 
none. 

I received your Christmas present in the spirit that sent 
it. I can't say "No ! No !" — for I preach mixing pleasure 
with business. Things are all wrong when we don't. I 
will never repay you. If I could, or did, you would re- 
ceive none of the blessings that come from giving gifts. 



380 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

The truth is, we knew each other years ago, perhaps cen- 
turies ago, and you have done a good turn to an old friend 
for which the old friend is glad, because it makes the tie 
more binding. 

I told you I would send Wells' history to you, and to it 
I have added one of the greatest of human documents, 
William James' Letters. I hope you love the largeness of 
the man, to be large and playful and useful, I say, man, can 
you beat that combination? I believe I know another 
beside James who meets the specifications. And strangely 
enough he, too, evolved from physician to psychologist, to 
philosopher. 

Well, here's hoping that he and his High-Souled Partner 
meet with many joys and few sorrows in 1921. 

F. K. L. 



XIII 

LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 

1919-1920 

To Mrs. Ralph Ellis 

[Camden, North Carolina, March, 1919] 

My dear Elizabeth, — And so they call you a Bolshevik ! 
a parlor Bolshevik ! Well, I am not surprised for your 
talk gives justification for calling you almost anything, 
except a dull person. When one is adventurous in mind and 
in speech — perfectly willing to pioneer into all sorts of 
mountains and morasses — the stay-at-homes always furnish 
them with purposes that they never had and throw them 
into all kinds of loose company. I have forgotten whether 
or no there was a Mrs. Columbus, but if the Old Man on 
his return spoke an admiring word of the Indian girls he saw 
on Santo Domingo you may be sure that he was at once 
regarded as having outdone that Biblical hero who ex- 
claimed, "Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity!," after having 
run his personal attachees up into the thousand. 

Yes, the very solemn truth is that adventuring is dangerous 
business, and mental adventuring most dangerous of all. 
We forgive those who do things that are strange, really more 
readily than those who talk of doing them. People are really 
afraid of talk, and rightly so, I believe. The mind that 
goes reaching out and up and around and through is a dis- 
turber, it bumps into every kind of fixed notion and takes 

381 



382 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

off a chip here and there, it probes into all sorts of mysteries 
and opens them to find that they are hollow wind-bag affairs, 
tho' always held as holy of holies heretofore. To think, 
to speculate, to wonder, to query — these imply imagination, 
and the Devil has just one function in this Universe — to 
destroy, to kill, or suppress or to divert or prevent the 
imagination. Imagination is the Divine Spark, and old 
Beelzebub has had his hands full ever since that spark was 
born. "As you were," is his one military command. His 
diabolical energy is challenged to its utmost when he hears 
the words "Forward March!" There is not much — 
anything — of beauty or nobility or achievement in the world 
that he has not fought, and all of it has been the fruit of 
imagination, the working of the creative mind. You see 
I come very near to believing in that old personal Devil 
which my Presbyterian father saw so vividly, and which our 
friend Wells has recently discovered. Satan is smart, and 
that is a very dreadful thing to be. I never like to hear 
the Yankee called smart, it is a term of reproach. I don't 
like to think of a Smart Set. And my refuge is in the knowl- 
edge that there is just one thing that destroys smartness 
and that is, to put it in a very high-sounding word, Nobility. 
There is the test we can all put to ourselves — and it really 
is conscience and ethics and religion all in one — is the idea 
smart or is it noble ? I'd take my chances of going to Heaven 
on the conformity of conduct to that criterion. 

But all this seems a far way from Parlor Bolshevism — 
yet it is not so far. For it all comes down to this. The Lord 
he prompts us to think and to advance, and the Devil he 
urges us to be smart, to switch our thinkings, our very right 
thinkings, our progressive impulses, to side tracks that will 
serve his ends. 

And that is just what is happening to a lot of the finest 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 383 

minds. Men and women who see clearly that things are 
wrong, who have enough insight and knowledge to get a 
glimpse into the unnecessary suffering of the world and who 
mentally come down with a slap-bang declaration that this 
must stop, are allowing themselves to be called by a name 
that history will execrate, and to smooth over and palliate 
and defend things that are bad, out of which good will not 
come. 

You have no love for Czarism any more than you have 
for Kaiserism. You do not care to make the world righteous 
by dictatorship, because you know that it is not growth or 
the basis of growth, but the foundation of hate. Now the 
very cornerstone of Bolshevism is smartness — the get-even 
spirit. Because the Czars and the Dukes have oppressed 
the poor, because when this land was divided among the 
serfs the division was not what it pretended to be, and 
because the German business managers of Russian industry 
made wages and conditions that were brutal and brutalizing, 
the peasants and workmen have said, "Let us have done 
with the whole crew, and take all land and industry into our 
own hands, killing those who were our masters under the 
old economic system. Let us turn the whole world topsy- 
turvy in a night, and bring all down to where we are. In 
our aspiration for Beauty, let us kill what has been created. 
In our hunt for Justice, let us disregard fair dealing. In our 
purpose to level down, let us do it with the knife ruthlessly 
and logically." Thus disregarding the teachings of time, 
that men are not the creatures of logic, of passionless or 
passionate theses, but are the expression of an unfaltering 
Spirit. Whenever men have been the victims of logicalness 
they have been wrong. For instance, read the story of the 
Inquisition. They saw what they wanted clearly, those 
old Fathers of the Church. They knew their objective. 



384 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

which was to save men's souls. And they thought they 
knew the way. Logic told them that those who preached 
heresies were bringing men's eternal souls to everlasting 
hell fire. And they set about to stop the preaching. Had I 
believed as they did, I doubtless would have done as they 
did. But to be infallibly right is to be hopelessly smart. 
Thus it is with all who take a paper system and apply it to 
that strange thing called Life. 

This is the defect of the Intellectuals, the "parlor" 
Bolsheviks. (Better by far be an outdoor Bolshevik, a 
Red Guard, if you please, one who is in and of the fighting, 
who acts, who lives the theory !) They do not think in 
terms of human nature, of natural progress, of real facts. 
They say, "all men are born free and equal," and at once 
conclude that the stable boy can step from the stable door 
to the management of a factory or into the legislature. Now 
experience teaches that this is a most dangerous experiment, 
both for stable boy and society. The true philosophy of 
Democracy teaches that the stable boy shall have, through 
school and the step-ladder of free institutions, the chance 
to rise to the management of industry or the leadership of 
the Senate. That is why the foundation of Democracy is 
political. For out of political freedom will come social and 
economic freedom. That is why I favor woman suffrage, 
it gives women a chance to grow, to think along new lines 
and grow into new capacities. 

To feel acutely that things are badly ordered, and to feel 
that you know what opportunities men and women and 
boys and girls should have, is not a program of salvation, 
it is only the impulse toward finding one. Why then, be- 
cause we do feel so, should we harness ourselves to a word 
that implies methods that we would not countenance, and 
give character to a movement that is at absolute defiance 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 385 

with America's spirit and purpose ? There is danger, grave 
danger, in doing this. For we can upset our own apple-cart 
very easily these days. I have no more of this world's 
goods than the humblest workingman. No man is poorer 
than I am, measured by bank account standards. The 
education that I have, I fought for. Therefore I do not 
speak for a class. To defend the methods by which some 
men have made their money is not at all to my fancy. I 
see as clearly, I think, as one can, the necessity for the 
strong arm of society asserting itself, thrusting itself in where 
it has not been supposed to have any business. Yet I know 
that a Bolshevik movement, a capturing of what others 
have gained under the system which has obtained, and the 
brutal satisfaction of " getting even with the wage-masters" 
and making them feel to the depths of their souls and in 
the pain of their flesh every humiliation and torture, will 
permanently set nothing right. America is fair play. Is it 
a failure? Have you tried it long enough to know that it 
will not serve the world, as you think the world should be 
served? Is there any experiment that we cannot make? 
Are our hands tied ? True, our feet may lag, our eyes may 
not see far ahead, but who should say that for this reason 
man should throw aside all the firmness and strength and 
solidity of order, forget all that he has passed through, and 
start afresh from the bottom rung of the ladder — from 
the muck of the primitive brute ? 

There are things that we would not hold, that we think 
unworthy of our philosophy, that must be changed or else 
our sympathies and abiding hopes will be forever offended. 
And this would be to live right on under the pointing finger 
of shame. So we know it cannot last, this thing that offends, 
the badness and brutality of injustice, of unfairness to the 
weak, their inability to get a squarer chance. 



386 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Yet this does not compel us to forsake the hopeful thing 
we have, for which all men have striven, these centuries 
through. Must we confess that revolution is still necessary ? 
Are we no further ahead for all that Pym and Hampden 
and Sam Adams and Washington and all the rest of the glo- 
rified ones have done ? This land is truly a land of promise 
because it may be a land of fulfilment. It shows the way 
by which without murder and robbery and class hatred and 
the burning up of what has been, men may go right on 
making experiments, and failing, making others and failing, 
and learning something all the time. 

So, I'm for America, because, if nationalization of land 
and industry are wise experiments to make, no one can stop 
us from making them, if partial nationalization of either, 
or both, appeals to us as something that will right manifest 
wrongs, we can try that solution. And to cry quits on the 
best that civilization has done, because all that is wished 
for may not be realized or realizable today, is to lose per- 
spective and balance, and jump out the window because the 
stairs go round and round. 

There is really no use, and therefore no sanity, in being 
too gay or too grave over this old world of ours. That 
smart Devil, who is for the static life, is just now particularly 
active in his favorite old line of propaganda. He knows 
that the fruit of the tree will bring the millennium. Eat it 
and you will be happy. He knows the short cuts to freedom 
and justice. He knows that the curses that are promised 
for the breaking of the laws of the hunt will be turned into 
songs. So he is urging and urging, telling you, with your 
imagination and sensitiveness, that all is so bad that it is 
best to take the great risk, telling the poor sightless ones 
that their very primitive feelings and powers are the only 
safe guides, their last ultimate reliance and hope. And out 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 387 

of despair comes the bitter fruit we find in Russia, where 
they have wrought what they call an economic revolution, 
but have in fact produced nothing, for chaos is nothing. 
The wise Tinker who wrote of the Pilgrim's Progress was 
too true a Christian Scientist, a Christian and a Scientist, 
if you please, to picture his hero reaching the gate of gold 
by adopting Despair as his guide. 

Progress means the discovery of the capable. They are 
our natural masters. They lead because they have the right. 
And everything done to keep them from rising is a blow to 
what we call civilization. Bolshevism is the supremacy of 
the least capable who have the most power, most physical 
power. The thing Democracy will do is to breed capacity, 
give capacity its "show." The premiums, the distinctions, 
must go to capacity to promote it, to bring it forth, to make 
it grow, to be its sunshine. A chance at the sunshine, that's 
the motto. Sincerely yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Washington, 20 [March, 1919] 

You said, you will remember, that you did not mind such 
unconventional things as penciled letters — so here goes, 
Mrs. Radium. 

This is to be a conventional letter, too, one of the bread 
and butter variety, the quail and dove, pigeon pie, creamed 
macaroni variety, for all of which much thanks, likewise 
for much stimulating talk, your help in planting my garden, 
many motor flights through brown woods, and some most 
charming company, including a man named Ellis and his 
celebrated son, the pigeon shooter. 

We left you in the best possible hands, a lion and lioness i 
who through long years of civilized captivity came tamely 

1 Mr. and Mrs. John Galsworthy. 



388 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

to your bars to be tickled and patted, and, no doubt, when 
properly fed, purred back. If I were you, I would loot their 
typewriter. Therein are the secrets of the British govern- 
ment, copies of all unknown treaties, plans for the extermi- 
nation of Bolsheviki generally and the female kind in par- 
ticular; likewise, therein you will find, narrated with 
particularity, the details of all loose conversations had with 
hotel clerks, commercial travelers, teachers, chauffeurs, and 
others of the illuminati, in which "impressions" are given to 
foreign authors hunting for "copy." Mr. George Creel has 
these aforesaid gents of the illuminati staked out, so to speak, 
for this very purpose. Your dear friend Vera, the political 
Vamp, is no doubt conducting these sweet Innocents abroad, 
tho' not in person of course, being much too crafty and 
cunning for that. She has directed them by the wireless 
magic of her mind to Horseb ranch on the Hill, there to 
discover a radiating and luminous Lady, hidden in the pine 
woods, who will reveal among other things the following : 

(1) The nature of Woodrow Wilson's personal character; 

(2) The full reasons for his conduct; (3) His occult inter- 
national designs; (4) How he purposes to free Ireland; 
(5) The value of being House-broken ; (6) The real name 
of the Man in the Iron Mask. 

And much, much more — for she is a well, a fountain, a 
geyser, a Niagara, reversed, of information, misinformation, 
knowledge, ignorance, modesty, audacity, in captivating 
breeches or in modest demure caps or in flowing evening 
robe. Wise Vera, wise Creel — they know their business ! 
The English snooper, with typewriter in hand, will have a 
generous swig of the Scotch whiskey of the vintage of '56, 
and his tied tongue will loosen, a confiding and tender and 
sympathetic hand will softly clasp his, and the Dark Flower 
will open to the world — rather mixed that figure ! eh, what ? 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 389 

Now, of course, this is not what I took my pen in hand 
to write, not at all. I had intended after the formalities 
had been duly observed to tell you a few words about my 
wife. Excellent woman, that ! But very jealous ! very ! 
No sense of her own place ! Unwilling to subordinate 
herself. Since she "came into my life" she has walked 
around in it and otherwise behaved familiarly and at home. 
Never, never I beg of you, permit anyone to come into your 
life. It decidedly makes for clutter and disturbance. How- 
ever, as I was saying, she is an excellent woman and has been 
to the Doctor who says that she has suffered much. (Charge 
for same $10.) As he wishes to make the same charge for 
many days the excellent wife will not go to Charleston but 
remain here, that the charge may lawfully be imposed. 
(This is where the Christian Scientists are more Scientific 
for they could make the charge in absentia.) 

However and notwithstanding, the Peace Conference 
still lives. By wireless I have the news that Lloyd George 
is still doing politics, that Orlando is Fiuming (give that one 
to the Englisher), that Colonel House has not told all he 
knows to Lansing, and that Henry White dined last night 
with a Duchess who held his hand four minutes while telling 
him terrible things. 

But this is too frivolous altogether for a statesman to be 
writing to one whose mind is interested only in serious things ! 
I can see her steady, cold, stern eye of reproach. "And this 
to me," she says, "And 'twere not for thy hoary beard, etc., 
etc. 

I tell you frankly, tho' you may not believe it, that I am 
not entirely in a sober mood. Yesterday I planted bulbs 
with a lady who was not bulbous. The day before I shot 
pigeons for a lark. And I am boastful ! fair boastful, my 
Lady! My secretary and my confidential clerk and my 



390 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

many dark-hued messengers are solemnly impressed with 
my prowess with gun and spade. The truth shall not be 
heard in the land. I am my own talebearer and my own 
censor. I know more about agriculture than the Secretary 
of Agriculture, and I know more of Labor than the Sec- 
retary of the same. And for this, this glorious bursting 
into fruitfulness at so advanced an age — you and your 
good man are responsible and to be credited in the Golden 
Book in which is written, What the Plain People Do for 
Each Other. 

Thanking you for the Bread and Butter, believe me yours 
for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. 

F. K. L. 

Washington, Saturday, [January 19, 1920] 

I am clothed in sackcloth and sitting in ashes. My head 
is bowed in humility and I am beating my breast in contri- 
tion. There is no joy in my face and my eyes look down- 
ward. Truly I am full of regret. Did she not write long, 
joyous, inquiring, curious, inviting pages to me ? and I have 
not answered ! And now will she ever make her face to 
shine upon me and give me peace ? 

I would fly to her — yes, fly to her in monoplane, biplane, or 
triplane — but many things deter me. A wife, who is busy 
with the Gods of the Elder Days ; a daughter, who is busy 
with the God of the present day — to wit, a young man 
named Philip, surnamed Kauffmann, son of " The Star,*' six 
feet two in stockings or otherwise, late of His Majesty's 
Navy, Princeton, Football, etc., etc. The marriage is to 
be tied in April, God willing, Nancy ordering, Philip con- 
senting, Father paying. 

As if this were not enough to hinder, the desk must be 
cleared for exit — the office desk ; for the place that knew 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 391 

me through seven long years of trouble, anxiety, insult, 
joy, humiliation, satisfaction, achievement, companionship, 
hope, shall soon know me no more, forever. 

Verily, I say unto you, that if ever mortal man or mortal 
mind needed rest, recreation, recuperation, and other al- 
literative things, that same man is now writing to the Lady 
Elizabeth Ellis, of Terraced Garden, in Camden, by the 
Wateree. And he is writing without hope that he will see 
the Lady and her Lord and the Princeling, for moons and 
moons. This is a sad, sad word for him to write. But 
the whole world is skew-jee, awry, distorted and alto- 
gether perverse. The President is broken in body, and ob- 
stinate in spirit. Clemenceau is beaten for an office he did 
not want. Einstein has declared the law of gravitation out- 
grown and decadent. Drink, consoling friend of a Per- 
turbed World, is shut off ; and all goes merry as a dance in 

hell! 

Oh God, I pray, give me peace and a quiet chop. I do not 
ask for power, nor for fame, nor yet for wealth. Lift me 
on the magic carpet of the Infinite Wish and lay me down 
on a grassy slope, looking out on a quiet sunny sea, and 
make me to dream that men are gentle and women reason- 
able. And forgive us our trespasses, Amen ! 

And again I pray — Give me patience. Let me not ask 
for today what may not come until tomorrow. Let mine 
eyes not be filled with visions of things as they would be in 
a world wherein men were Gods. Let mine ears be closed to 
Siren calls which lure to the rocks. Stiffen my soul to make 
the climb. Keep from my heart cynical despair. Make 
my mouth to speak slow words, and curb my tongue that 
it may not outrun the Wisdom taught by the years. Give 
surety to my steps, Lord, and lead me by the hand for 
I know not the way. 



392 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Your telegram lures as your letter did. But such pleasures 
are not for us, because of our sins. "And those that are 
good shall be happy !" 

Work. Work. Work. It is the order of the One Su- 
preme. It keeps us from being foolish, and doing as fools 
do. It is needed for the mastery of a world that has its 
Destiny written, as surely as we have ours. It is a chain 
and a pair of wings ; it binds and it releases. It is the master 
of the creature and the tool of the Creator. It is hell, and 
it lifts us out of hell into heaven. It was not known in 
Paradise, but there could be no Paradise without it. A curse 
and a Savior ! Our life-term sentence and the one plan of 
salvation ! Work — for the weary, the wasted, and the worn. 
Work — for the joyous, the hopeful, the serene. Work — 
for the benevolent and the malevolent, the just and the 
cruel, the thoughtful and the unheeding. Work — for 
things that life needs, for things that are illusions, for dead- 
sea fruit, for ashes ; and work for a look at the stars, for the 
sense of things made happier for many men, for the lifting 
of loads from tired backs, for the smile of a tender girl, for 
the soft touch of a grateful mother, for the promise it brings 
to the boy of one's hopes. 

Work ! Why work ? It is the order of the One Supreme. 

So saying, at one o'clock of Sunday morning, he lifted 
up his hand and waved three times to the Southward — ■ 
once for the Lady of the Troubled Heart, who flirts with the 
Angel of Destruction, thinking he may turn out to be a God, 
and once for the Lord of the Lady, serenely fatalistic, and 
the third, and this a very big one, for the Princeling who is 
making a manly battle, cheerfully, confidently. The Friend 
of the Three. 

F. K. L. 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 393 

Washington, [February 5, 1920] 

And so, again the Boy has been attacked by a strange 
enemy, and you are fighting. That is what you have been 
doing for years, fighting for that bit of life you love more 
than your own self. You did not think you could do it 
when you were a girl, did you? You have wondered at 
yourself many, many times. And wondered at the Fate 
which brought this long challenge to you. But it has been 
a splendid fight, hasn't it? A glorious fight against odds. 
There has been no justice in it. No justice, and our souls 
do so want justice, an even chance, something in front of 
us that we can see and know and fight. God knows why 
such tortures come to some, while others sail on such smooth 
seas. Can it be that there is no soul excepting the one we 
make for ourselves by fighting ? Are those really blest who 
have such challenges given to their spirits? Or is this 
all by way of excusing God, or Nature, for the unexplain- 
able? 

There is no way to make the fight excepting to believe 
that the fight is the thing — the one, only, greatest thing. 
(To deny this is to leave all in a welter, and drift into purpose- 
less cynicism, — blackness.) To determine that this is the 
way, the truth, and the life, is to get serenity. Then the 
winds may howl and the seas roll, but there can be no 
wreck. 

I know you don't like to be coddled. You are not of the 
cotton-batting school. You can take and give. But "may 
I not" say a word of appreciation and perhaps of stimulation 
— give you a good masculine thump on the shoulder by 
way of saying that for one who lives in a mist you have lots 
of gimp. To love something better than oneself is the first 
step, I guess, toward making that soul. 

Please read the note, in special envelop, to Ralphie, when 



394 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

he will be interested. By Jove, how fortunate that we 
could not leave. All my force is sick. Three of my assist- 
ants are laid up. Six hundred and eighty people in my 
Department are in bed. And I am struggling to get out and 
leave my job up to date. Good fortune ! 

F. K. L. 

[Katonah, August, 1920] 

. . . You know that I love you — yes, just as much as 
Ralph Ellis, who is a tough sailor man, and Anne Lane, who 
is a citizen of two worlds, will let me. But I would love you 
more, much more, if you did not have to be induced by my 
wife to write to me. Your love letter was all right, but it 
was procured. Do you get that word — procured — and 
my wife was the procuress. This may be de rigueur and 
comme il faut and umslopogass on Long Island, but it does 
not go in Katonah — peaceful, pure Katonah ! 

Here, in this sweet centre, if a lady wishes "for to make 
eyes" at a man, by way of a letter, she does it without being 
told to do it by the said man's wife. And then to open, 
"Dear Mr. Lane," — Gosh Lizzie ! isn't that pretty warm ! 

My anger is so great that I am now sitting up in bed at 
the weary hour of two to relieve myself — for otherwise I 
cannot sleep. 

Your remarks upon the distraught condition of the public 
mind, the unfortunate fix into which the Polacks have fixed 
themselves, the heart-breaking cry that you send out for 
men to get together and be sensible, before they are sadder, 
— these things have no lodgement in my soul-center. For 
I am loved by a lady who speaks much of free speech and 
courage and candor and other virtues of prehistoric existence, 
but who talks of herself all through her letter and never 
of me at all. How can the fire be kept burning with a cold 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 395 

back-log like that ? Talk about me ! That's the first 
principle of all conversation — even not amorous. 

Well, you are a good woman, Mrs. Ellis, and I hope Mr. 
Ellis is well, and that you are not having trouble with the 
help. Goodbye, Mrs. Ellis ! 

Come, sweet Elizabeth, let us join hands and go for a 
gay climb over the piney hills — you can sing your minor 
note of sad distress — your miserere, if you can, in the face 
of the puffy clouds, and I will laugh at you for having too 
much of world concern in your heart. The blessings do 
not come to those who are "troubled about many things." 

The soul is an individual, you know. We are saved by 
units not en masse. Every individual is a species — isn't 
that what splendid Bergson says ? So come away from 
responsibilities and let your poor heart, which is so un- 
selfish that it cannot rest, indulge itself in the luxury of a 
peaceful forgetting, for a few days. 

Practically, this seems like a good place — the process is 
to reduce you to a pulp and then gradually restore you to 
form. I am just emerging from the mash. 

Do give my greetings — graduated calorically as your 
judgment suggests — to the many friends in your neighbor- 
hood who have forgotten me. 

Devotedly, yet very sore, 

F. K. L. 

[September] 

This is a sentimental letter from a sentimentalist to a sent 
for a sent . It is by way of atonement, chiefly. 



I want to be forgiven for all the hard things I have said to 
you. I feel that I owe you much, at least a good word, for 
all the bad ones I have given you. 

You are a health-giver. That's not such a bad name, is 



396 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

it? In fact I don't know a better. It doesn't sound sen- 
timental, no husband would be alarmed by it, and yet it 
carries in it implications of gaiety and tenderness and romp- 
ishness with a touch of mysterious adoration. Altogether 
it is a very real large word that does not signify virtues but 
rather attractivenesses. Mind, I don't say that you have 
not the virtues — all of them, offensive and defensive, but 
the attractivenesses make life, don't they? And to be a 
health-giver is not merely to have charm. That is the 
spell-casting power, to be filled with witchery, to be a witch. 
Yes, I believe it is something like that — very much in fact, 
but the witchery must be balsamic, it must be radiant, it 
must go out in rays or circles or waves, because it can't 
help going out, not purposefully and selfishly, like the cast- 
ing of a net — it must be balsamic and radiant, the out- 
breathing of pines. 

Now this is a very nice name I have called you — you 
can put it into Latin or Greek or French and make it sound 
much better to the unimaginative. But you deserve it, and 
I hope my little girl will become one. 

Franklin K. Lane 

Katonah, Sunday, [September 25, 1920] 

. . . We leave here on Wednesday (D. V.) for Bethel 
because you said to. Now how soon will you follow — a day 
— a week ? Not more ! 

You made up your mind that you would go there, and there 
is now to be proof given whether your mind is weak or riding 
strong. 

Anne is to have H. Beale there, and they move in circles 
barred to me. So I shall sorely need someone who knows 
my language. And I am not frivolous when I say that you 
and I need nothing more than a religious faith of some kind. 



LETTERS TO ELIZABETH 397 

Mohammedan, Christian Science, or what you will. We 
are both religious — deeply. We pray — we do things for 
the good of men and women, — but we do not relate our- 
selves properly to the Great Enveloping, Permeating Spirit. 
I have sought to, vainly, for many years, and yet I have 
not been persistent. "Seek and ye shall find !" I want to 
believe that the God of Things as They Are is not wilfully 
cruel. Is He indifferent? 

Are we mastering something ? Tell me ! Do you know ? 
What philosophy have you come to ? 

Well, all this we can talk over when we reach Bethel. 
Say, do you ever answer letters or is it your Queenly 
prerogative to drop your sweethearts down the public 
oubliette ? 

F. K L. 

Washington, 27 [December, 1920] 
My wife won't let me call on you, "not now, anyhow," 
she says. Oh, you have so many enemies ! Adolph and 
Mary, Senator and Mrs. Kellogg, Chief Justice and Mrs. 
White, Dr. and Mrs. Gehring. All are against you, and 
against me — all plotting, planning, and conspiring with 
my wife to keep us apart. They know the hold you have 
on me, that I had rather have you as my doctor than any 
one else in the whole vasty Universe — but why sigh ? 
I am to be torn away on Wednesday and rushed to 
Rochester, where the Mayos will take me in hand, and do 
their worst. I have great hope that they may cut me 
into happiness, and carve me into health, and slice me into 
strength. 

So, as Anne wired, we shall not see you in Camden, nor 
Ralph nor the Junior nor anything that is Ellis — not for 
some moons anyway. 



398 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

. . . The reason for going to Mayos? To see if it is 
true that my stomach and my gall bladder have become too 
intimate. Rochester is the Reno where such divorces are 
granted. 

I'd like to say I love you and the whole kit and caboodle, 
but my wife won't let me. 

F. K. L. 



XIV 
FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 

1921 

Need for Democratic Program — Religious Faith — Men who Have In- 
fluenced Thought — A Sounder Industrial Life — A Super-University for 
Ideas — "I Accept" — Fragment 

To Mrs. Philip C. Kaufmann 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 1, 1921 

To that little Fairy with whom a young fellow named 
Frank Lane used to wander in the woods, hunting the homes 
of the Fairies, — Greetings on her birthday ! Has she 
found where they live? I believe she has. They live 
where eyes are bright with love, and hands are gentle and 
kind, where feelings are not hurt and there is song hummed, 
and Play, a very real God, still lives. 

... I think that we have got to see each other some- 
how, somewhere, because life is passing awfully fast and 
there is one best thing in it— supremely, overwhelmingly 
best — and that is affection. I've chased around after 
fame and work for others, but I just wish I had spent 
pretty much all my time loving you and Mother and Ned, 
and let everything else come way down on the list. The 
people who really love us are so few, aren't they ? Lots 
of them like us, lots of them are glad to be with us, but 
few can be counted on "world without end, Amen." 

This is surely a very uncertain and unsatisfactory 

399 



400 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

world for me right now. How much we all do like definite- 
ness and how few are willing to trust the future to the Great 
Spirit. We fuss and fume as if it would do good rather than 
ill. Happiness is the thing we all desire and it is to be had 
easily through a most simple philosophy ; do your best and 
then have faith that things will come right. Happy people 
are those who live with happy thoughts ; those who see 
good in people and by brave and cheerful thinking are su- 
perior to depression and bitterness. 

The longer I live the more I am convinced that it is our 
duty to be gay ; not reckless, never that ; not boisterous, 
but light-hearted. It saves doctor's bills, brings success, 
and is the one method, the natural method, by which we 
become really big, and by that I mean superior to the evil 
forces that try to break us down. ... To be gay one must 
see how very little some things are, and how very big other 
things are. And the big things are things like love and 
goodness and unselfishness ; and the little things are the 
selfish mean things, self-indulgent things, things generally 
that come out of one's vanity, one's love of one's self. Get 
rid of that and life becomes a pretty good place. Envy, 
vanity, self-indulgence — these are devils. 

... I wish you would really sink yourself into some 
religion. To start right is so important. You will miss 
much joy in life, I am convinced, by not having a faith; 
something to live by, something that explains the questions 
that rise each hour. Buddhism does not claim to be super- 
natural, is not founded on miracles, and yet Buddha taught 
the philosophy of Christ five hundred years before He came. 
The central note is getting above self — real self-mastery. 
Possessing, mastering your body and mind so that you do 
not allow envy or hatred to possess you, and do not hanker 
after "things," possessions, or fame or popularity, and keep 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 401 

strong hold on wilfulness and anger and your passions. 
Its fundamental maxim is that unhappiness and sorrow 
come from ignorance of Truth — and Truth is found by 
submerging self. The body is not bad, the lusts of the 
body and the mind are not bad, but the body is no more 
than an envelop for the soul, its master. 

Good-night to you both, you are fast asleep by now. . . . 
In my long days and nights I think so much about you, 
wondering what the Gods have in store for her who has been 
so much to me. Much, much love little one. 

Dad 

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 1, 1921 

To the Wheelers with the warmest greetings of the Lanes ! 
A bonny year be this to you — a year of sunny faces — may 
you live surrounded by those whom you love and damned 
indifferent to all the rest ! 

I, Franklin K. Lane, am trying to find out if the last doc- 
tor in New York was right. He said my trouble came from 
an improper alliance between my gall-bladder and my py- 
loric orifice, and that here in Rochester they could be sum- 
marily divorced. (If you don't know where the pylorus is 
you may locate it as the N. W. \ of the N. W. \ of the stom- 
ach. Until you reach fame you never have a pylorus — and 
then it is most costly.) So here I am in a real Reno, hoping 
that a knife will be able to "put me to work anew," . . . and 
writing this as a proof of "love and affection," whatever 
the legally great may mean by the distinction. . . 

And talking of language, have you read what Wells has 
to say in his Outline of History on this subject ? I found it 
very interesting; probably all old stuff to you, however. 
Can there be a science of language, or of anything that a 



402 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

human creates ? I am rather Bergsonian in my idea of the 
individual man — each is a species. 

Miller is very unhappy because [Governor] Harding may 
leave the Board. He [Miller] will go if the new man is not 
satisfactory. But I think he will be. For Harding will be 
conservative and a great respecter of wealth. And Miller 
while a radical in many things is a classicist as to Finance. 

If Harding leaves out Hoover he will do himself and the 
country harm, and Hoover good. At last the sun shines ! 

F. K. L. 

To Lathrop Brown 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 3, [1921] 

Well, my dear young Spirit of the Renaissance, I am not 
yet dead, not even dying. Slowly I am doing the stations of 
the Cross in this most thorough institution. I am delighted 
with my experience. Here is concentrated every form of 
torture and annoyance to which one can be legally subjected. 
Cruel and unusual punishments are forbidden by the Con- 
stitution, but I take it that one may yet take torture and 
punishment, if he pays for it. All that I have ever done, 
been or thought has been revealed — probed for, and found 
out. . . . 

Truly, this is the most scientifically organized organiza- 
tion of scientists that ever was. Henry Ford could not 
improve upon it. Combine him with M. Pasteur, add a 
touch of one Edison, and a dose of your friend, Charlie 
Schwab, and you have the Mayo Clinic, big, systematized, 
modernized, machinized, doctorial plant, run by a couple 
of master workmen. I am seeing it all, and am prepared 
for any fate. Thus far I am no more than twenty-one years 
of age. My organs seem to be working union hours and to 
react with proper promptitude, self-respect and authority. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 403 

Tomorrow I am to be photographed and fluoroscoped — 
and then will come the verdict. If it is the guillotine I shall 
go gaily, like one of your ancestors in those tumbril days of 
France. What I fear is an order to "rest," on a new diet. 
But I guess whatever is said will be the last word — the 
Supreme Court decision. Fine reputation, that, for two 
young chaps who never went to Harvard, eh, what ? 

Well, tell me the news. You have been silent too long. 
I long to know of your further adventures in politics with 
one G. White. . . . 

And now, my dear Lathrop, may I extend to you the 
greetings of the New Year. May you have a continuous 
and abiding and keen sense that you are doing good, like- 
wise doing well. 

F. K. L. 

To Mrs. George Ehle 

Rochester, Minnesota, January, [1921] 

It is only a little below freezing. The sky is grey. Snow, 
hard and frozen over, covers the ground, sleighs go through 
the streets, jingling their merry way. Boys throw each 
other down upon the encrusted snow. Girls in red woolen 
caps pick their way cautiously. Farm horses drawing sleds 
make their heavy way. And in these sleds, families sitting 
on the heaped straw in the bed of the wooden box, smiling 
mothers and happy babies, lined up together, warm, pro- 
tected from the wind. Trees outlined against the sky, look- 
ing like dark coral rising out of a sea of snow into the dull 
light. An old man, gaunt, bewhiskered, trudges along con- 
fidently although he looks over eighty. A younger man, 
evidently a stranger, feels his cautious way over the slippery 
walk, covered with furs, hands, head, and body. After 
him a still younger man, without an overcoat — a postman. 



404 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Can you see it all ? Do you recognize the picture ? Was 
it once part of your life? This world is not so very bad 
when nature challenges every one to fight for life. 

Nothing doing for me now ! That's the word. Too 
much risk. . . . 

Bless you, Lady Dear of the Understanding Eye. May 
we yet meet upon the gentle banks of the Shepaug and there 
make medicine for our poetic souls. 

Anne has been a trump through these ten days of anxiety. 
Yours affectionately, 

F. K. L. 

To Mrs. William Phillips 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 11, [1921] 

The black cat, yellow-eyes, came, dear Lady Caroline — 
came to me here in a hospital and I put him on my table 
alongside my tiny bust of Lincoln, which is the sacred place. 
I wish indeed those eyes could see within this shell of mine 
and tell what it is that twists my heart, physically turns it 
on its axis, so that its polarity is changed. From mystery 
to mystery we have traveled the past year, Anne, with her 
unfaltering trust, and I, a doubting Thomas. We came 
here for an operation, but the doctors somewhat doubt its 
wisdom at all, certainly not now, when pneumonia might 
befall. So after ten hard days of closest examination I go 
forth from this, the Supreme Court of Surgery in the Land, 
with no decision. "Wait and see what good it has done to 
live without tonsils, and in the California sunshine until 
spring. "... But they live in the Land of Guess ! 

And so another baby has come to bless you and William ! 
Truly you are a confident couple! Age would hesitate to 
bring into a world, so filled with shadow, an increasing num- 
ber of our species. What a supreme act of faith the con- 
tinuance of the race is. . . . Oh, the cunning of Nature — 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 405 

how empty the heart of man or woman who has not felt 
the clutch of a baby's hand, or drunk deep of the heaven- 
made perfume of a baby's breath. And the impulse that 
babies give to life, the challenge that they make to the 
father is always a noble one. It is not so as to women ; less, 
as to ourselves. We are urged to courses that are petty, 
unworthy, selfish, debasing, supine, and brutal by our own 
natures or those of our mates. But for the child we act 
nobly, its call to us is always to our finer side, and so gradu- 
ally we are lifted higher. Did any man in history ever do a 
cruel or wicked thing because of the appeal made to him by 
the smile of his child ? He may have accredited his action to 
the prompting of love for his baby, but I believe it would be 
found that there was another motive, generally an over- 
whelming personal vanity ; so great a lust for power, per- 
haps, that it would carry across the gulf of death. 

I hardly believe that you need fear immediate expulsion 
from your new-found Eden. My expectation is that you 
will be treated with kindness by the new Administration, 
which will act most cautiously on all things. I shall know 
how to get a word, any word you wish, to the new Presi- 
dent, I think, and my services as you know are at your 
order at any time. But if you are sent into the Limbo 
of private life you will be welcomed by a host who have 
preceded you and who will selfishly rejoice. 

My gayest greetings to Sir William and, in cloudy Hol- 
land, may the sun shine in your hearts always. 

Franklin K. Lane 

To James H. Barry 

San Francisco Star 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 12, [19211 

Dear Jim, — The Star has set — it goes the way of Nature 
— the circle must be completed. The only question one 



406 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

may ask is, "Was it useful?" I think it was, Jim, it held 
many to the true course, it was an honest guide in a bewil- 
dering world. 

Do let us meet when I am West, and talk of Henry George 
and John Marble and Arthur McEwen, who have gone on, 
and left not their like. . . . 

F. K. L. 

To Michael A. Spellacy 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 12, [1921] 

My dear Mike, — ... I shall await your re-coming with 
great interest. Truly you should write up what you see. 
Get good pictures and I will get it all in the National Geo- 
graphic Magazine, and then we'll see what the Cosmos Club 
will say ! I am in earnest about this — keep a diary in 
which you write, in your own gay style, what you see, and 
you will soon have fame as well as fortune. 

The news from Mexico is not very encouraging. Obre- 
gon is sick so much, and without policy, without de- 
pendable friends. Cardinal Gibbons came near dying, but, 
thank God, pulled through ! A very wonderful man. I 
am very fond of him and he likes me I know, for I handled 
the Indians for seven years and had no trouble, because he 
and I had a flat understanding that I should take my church 
troubles, if any arose, to him. 

The old Chief Justice called on us in Washington. He is 
seventy-five and almost totally blind. And the greatest 
Chief since John Marshall. 

De Valera has landed and I expect things to be doing 
pretty soon. The British are greatly mystified as to how 
he got over and back. You see you are not the only adven- 
turer on the face of the globe. We used to think that these 
were prosey, stoggy, flat-footed days, but there is any 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 407 

amount of adventure — from the fields of Flanders to the 
mountains of Colombia — even the Spanish main has had 
its rebirth. 

Mrs. Lane wants me to thank you for your thought of her. 
As you know no one holds a deeper, surer place in her heart 
than you and Tim. 

Well, old chap, I am sitting in bed — four in the morning 
— with a devilish sore throat and without anything to eat 
or much sleep for thirty-six hours, so if this screed is not one 
of great illumination or information you will know that 
it was only a message of cheer and good-will from one who is 
fond of you, but who warns you to be careful for all of our 
sakes. As always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To William R. Wheeler 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 13, [1921] 
Dear Bill, — Off to see you eventually, I trust, tomorrow. 
Had my tonsils out, won't do anything else till Spring. 
Meantime I want to see no doctors. Having tried twenty, 
and come "out by that same door wherein I went." An 
osteopath, yes. Faith cure — Indian Medicine men — 
anything else, but no doctors ! I turn from Esculapius to 
Zoroaster, from medicine to the sun. I want to "lie down 
for an aeon or two." (Alice knows where that comes from.) 

With much love to you both. 

Frank 

To V. C. Scott O'Connor 

[Rochester, Minnesota], January 13, [1921] 

My dear Scott O'Connor, — It is a joy to get your letter 
and to know of your new book which I have not seen, for 
the very good reason that for five months I have been in 



408 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

hospitals. Angina pectoris they call it, but where it comes 
from they don't say, they don't know. Am off to Califor- 
nia for a couple of months, then probably back to New York. 

I have read Wells' History, which seems to me the most 
remarkable thing of the historical essay kind ever hit off; 
and therein I discovered your friend Asoka, but I have 
been able to learn little else about him. 

Buddhism attracts me greatly, as perhaps the most per- 
fect attitude on the negative side that has ever been devel- 
oped and largely lived. It is not complete for a temperate 
zone people, who are and must be aggressive. Nor does it 
reveal, so far as I know, the spiritual possibilities that 
Christianity does. The constructive seems to be lacking. 
But it is so far ahead of the purely opportunist attitude that 
Christianity takes that I should like to be a Buddhist, I 
verily believe. 

I see that Lord Reading goes to India. He is the greatest 
of diplomats, an oriental by nature, and will do good, if 
good can be done in that unhappy situation. I admire the 
cheerful way Lloyd George keeps. He is a great man. 
Each six months I have looked to see him fall, but he keeps 
up, even with Ireland, India, Egypt, South Africa on his back. 

Tell me what you are doing now, anything beside writ- 
ing, and writing what next ? I wish that I had the literary 
endowment — ideas, plus style, plus energy. Good for- 
tune to you always. Cordially yours, 

Franklin K. Lane 

Letter sent to several friends 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 10, 1921 

"And when they came upon the Snark, they found it was 
a Boojum — or words to that effect — and so, my dear 
Jack, they couldn't operate now. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 409 

There is the whole story. Details there are, of course. 
But Meissonier's style never did appeal to me. After peer- 
ing into, and probing, all known and unknown parts of the 
Mortal Man, they found that the heart in one part changed 
its polarity, — turned over, by George, or tried to, - 
hence the Devil's clutch. But why did it do this vaude- 
villian act? Bugs, bugs, of course. But where? So they 
chased them to their lair in that wicked, nasty-named and 
most vulgar organ known as the gall-bladder. Damn the 
gall-bladder ! Out it must come ! On with the knifing ! 
But soft, not so swift. Suppose the heart should try to 
play its funny stunt in the midst of the operation ? Or 
suppose again in this icy weather, pneumonia should ensue 
and the naughty heart should take to turning? Eh, what 
then, my brave Bucko? "No," they said, "We are experts 
in eliminating this same appropriately named organ from 
the system — eight thousand times have we done it. It is 
a twenty-five minute job. A mere turn of the wrist and 
out the viper comes. And it never comes back ! This is 
positively its last appearance, save as a memento for the 
morbid-minded in a bottle of alcohol. But hearts that do 
somersaults and lungs that choke up, fill us with fear. So 
out with the tonsils where bugs accumulate and men decay, 
and then off with you to California where bugs degenerate 
and men rejuvenate. Then come back when the sun shines 
and the trees begin to burgeon and the trick will be done. 
Hold yourself where you are, grow better if you can, and 
we'll have to take the risk of the tumbling heart, but the 
pneumonia risk will be gone." 

Thus saith the Prophets ! And this day, therefore, will 
be spent with the Master of the mysterious fluoroscope, 
who reverses Edward Everett Hale and looks "in and not 
out," and with the dentist who must fill a pesky tooth, and 



410 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

then with the surgeon who tears out tonsils. Rather a full 
day, eh ? And after two days in hospital, or three, over the 
hills to 8 Chester Place, Los Angeles, — by no means a 
poor-house, — but alas ! carrying the malevolent bugs and 
their nesting place with me. Then I shall rest, "and faith 
I shall need it, lie down for an aeon or two, till the Master 
of all good workmen shall put me to work anew." 

I am disappointed. I would take the risk if it were left 
to me. But I shall go West — why did those soldier boys 
ever use that phrase with such sinister meaning, or did it 
signify a better land to them ? I shall go West in good hope 
that I shall return, and meantime will try to develop a 
strong propaganda in favor of race suicide in the land of 
the bothering bacteria. Adios. 

F. K. L. 

To John G. Gehring 

Rochester, Minnesota, January 13, [1921] 

My dear Padre, — I wrote you an impressionistic sketch 
of what the politicians call the "local situation," a couple 
of days since. ... It is subject to attack on every possible 
ground as to details, for no man can know from it what these 
doctors found. But it is a perfect picture from the artist's 
standpoint, because it produces the result on the viewer or 
reader that is truth, and that result is a large, purple be- 
fuddlement. I am whole, but I have a pain. . . . 

After I had practically been declared one hundred per 
cent pluperfect I gave the electric cardiograph man a picture 
or exhibition performance under an attack. This revealed 
to him a change in polarity in the current passing through, 
which signified something, but what that something was, 
other than that I was having a spasm, I don't know. . . . 

The smug, mysterious gentleman who made this picture 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 411 

was much pleased, apparently at nothing more than that 
he had proved that I had a clutch of the heart, which I had 
announced, by wire, before arriving here. 

Am I impatient or am I a damn fool ? 

Well, with my tonsils out I am in Royal Baking Powder 
condition and tomorrow we start for California. I cannot 
hope to be out there till May or June, when you would 
come. But Heaven knows I'd like to introduce you to the 
Yosemite ! . . . 

Do you know I am beginning to admire myself. Now 
many have thought that that was my favorite sport. But 
I can assure you that no one ever felt more humble than I 
have, any appearance to the contrary being a bluff for 
success — effect. But now that I have been wisely and 
scrupulously and unscrupulously examined by the most 
exalted rulers of the Inner Temple, and they pronounce me 
all that man should be, why shouldn't I strut some? But, 
damn it, strutting brings that Devil's clutch — and a man 
cannot be anything more strutty than a dish-rag then. 

In William James you will find a questionnaire, "Why do 
I believe in immortality? 'Because I think I'm just about 
ready to begin to live.'" There speaks self-justifying age 
— I'm there, too. 

I'd love to look on Bethel this morning, and see what 
your poet-partner calls the hills in their wine bath. Good 

luck. 

Lane 

To Lathrop Brown 

Los Angeles, [January] 15, [1921] 

My dear Lathrop, — I have yours of the eleventh. First 
question, as to men and women for the Executive Com- 
mittee. 



412 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Answer : Get men who can make a program, something 
that the party can push, outside Congress, if too cowardly 
in. People who don't want anything, if possible. 

Think of these ! (I don't say they will do, but they 
stand for something.) 

Charles W. Eliot. 

Benjamin Ide Wheeler. (Ex-President of the Univer- 
sity of California. Ex- 
Chairman, Democratic Com- 
mittee, Elmira, New York.) 

E. M. House. 

Frank I. Cobb. 

John W. Davis. 

Robert Lansing. 

R. Walton Moore. (Congressman from Virginia, big 

fellow.) 

Gavin McNab. 

Governor Parker, of Louisiana. 

James D. Phelan. 

Van-Lear Black. 

For solid thought I'd choose out of that bunch — Eliot 
and Moore. 

For cleverness — Black and McNab. 

For diplomacy — House and Davis. 

For progressiveness — House and Parker. 

For Conservative Democracy — Wheeler and Lansing. 

For writing ability — Cobb and Eliot. 

I know no women who think, particularly. . . . 

The kind of publicity we need is the advocacy by the 
National Committee, and by Democrats in Congress of 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 413 

first class measures, known to be Democratic measures, 
part of a program. 

I'll tell you how to get all the publicity you want when I 
see you — or White — a new kind, cheap, but requiring 
brains. . . . 

F. K. L. 

To Lathrop Brown 

Los Angeles, January, [1921] 

Dear Lathrop, — (1) You are right as to standardiza- 
tion. The Devil devised it as a highway to socialism. It 
is the Bible of the great Tribe of Flatfoot, not for artists 
like you and myself. And speaking of programs, please 
read what Wells says in his first volume of Outline of His- 
tory, on David, Solomon, Moses. It will delight your anti- 
semitic soul. . . . 

Yes, standardization is like all else, good — for a distance. 
The whole bally outfit of life is a matter of balance, main- 
tained by war among the unintelligent bacilli and other 
primitives, and by will among men (goat feed for men, eh ?) 
But do you get my point ? Something to it ! 

(2) George White will be eaten up first thing he knows, 
unless he moves. Your friend McAdoo is here declining 
the next nomination daily, speaking much, and, I under- 
stand, well. . . . Why doesn't G. W. get Frank Cobb and 
Hooker, of the Springfield Republican, and Van-Lear Black, 
and Senator Walsh, and Phelan, and Congressman Walton 
Moore together, or any other group, and put up his plan 
and ask them what they think of it tentatively, — just a 
quiet chat, but start. 

He doesn't need to resign, if he can get someone as a quiet 
organizer "who will give all his time" to take up that job 
under him, with sub-organizers. Who is this genius who 



414 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

can organize inorganic matter, and give it life? Thought 
He was dead sometime ! 

'Wanted — A Miracle Man who can overcome a ma- 
jority of seven million votes with a hearty handshake and a 
warm brown eye. Need have no program, no money. 
Must be a hypnotist who can make the people forget a few 
things and believe a few things that are not true. Must be 
able by reciting poetry to make the cunning capitalist see 
that he is safer in the hands of the Democrats than else- 
where, and at the same time educate the worker by a pass 
of the hand to know that it is decent to stay bought. Must 
have received the Gift of Tongues on the Day of Pentecost, 
so as to talk Yiddish, in New York; Portuguese and 
Gaelic, in Massachusetts ; Russian and German, in Chicago ; 
Scandinavian, in the Northwest ; Cotton and Calhoun, in 
the South ; John Brown and wheat, in Kansas ; gold and 
Murphy, on 14th Street; and translate Jesus Christ into 
Bolshevism, Individualism, Capitalism, Lodgeism, Wil- 
sonism ! Must be as honest as old Cleveland and as clear 
of purpose as Abraham Lincoln." 

Put this want ad. in the papers and send me, by freight 
car, the replies. With my warmest, 

F. K. L. 

To Adolph C. Miller 

Los Angeles, January 26, [1921] 

Dear Adolph, — I see that Harding 1 is to leave you, and 
this is a note of sympathy. What will you do? Poor 
chap ! I know the satisfaction you have had out of working 
with him and now he follows Warburg, Delano, and Strauss. 
By Jove, that's why we can't make things go as other coun- 
tries do — because we can't give our people enough to live 

1 Governor Harding of the Federal Reserve Board — a rumor of resignation. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 415 

on. This is at once the meanest and most generous of 
Republics. Mean collectively, generous individually. 

He will wait until after March 4th. "Right oh!" I 
expect you to have some say as to his successor, espe- 
cially as to the new Governor. And if you can't work 
with the new man you can lift your skirts and skip ! 
Freedom of movement, assured as to all by Adam Smith, 
is exclusively the prerogative of the fortunate few. Don't 
be downhearted ! You can't be as badly off as you 
were for several years. Just think how unlucky I am as 
compared with you, and pat yourself on the back and take 
one of the old time struts. Good belly ! Good brains ! 
Good pocket-book ! Good friends near you ! Good dog 
to walk with in the woods — and woods in which you can 
walk ! Good house, with your own books to look at you 
friendly-like. Oh boy, rejoice and be glad ! 

February 17, [1921] 

We are most terribly disappointed. Your promised visit 
was a bright spot, — a sunshiny place — to which we have 
looked forward as to nothing else since we came here. Well, 
life is a series of such jars, and child-like I submit, but am 
not reconciled. 

. . . Are you coming later? How is Mary? We 
really seem far away from our friends. The land is beau- 
tiful, but friends convert a shack into a palace, a desert into 

a heaven. 

F. K. L. 

To John G. Gehring 

Pasadena, near Paradise, February 18 
Before breakfast this morning, indeed before dressing, I 
sent you a message which was a combined confession, 



416 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

apologia, report, and appeal. I said, "I have done wrong, 
I apologize, I am slightly better, and I hope and pray you 
will not become downhearted." I also promised to write 
and here I am at it. But you would have had this letter 
just as early anyway, for this morning was to be yours and 
mine. All other mornings for two weeks and more have 
belonged to someone else. I have been pretending to work, 
by going to the office each day. And last night I said 
good-bye to the Napoleon of our institution, who took his 
private car and rolled away to Mexico, to Galveston first, 
thence by private yacht to Tampico, there to see his prop- 
erties and spend two or three weeks. 

. . . They desired us to go greatly, and ours would have 
been every possible comfort that one can have while travel- 
ing, . . . but the tyrant Anne thought that as I was pick- 
ing up a bit it was wrong to change conditions, and I 
yielded, hardly against my judgment, but strongly against 
my desire. 

So here I am, the first hour after release, sitting on the 
porch of a villa, looking across a valley at amethyst moun- 
tains, crowned with a sprinkling of blue and white snow. 
The noises that come to me are not raucous ; — the twitter 
of birds, a rooster crowing, a well-pump throbbing its heart 
out, the shouts of some children at play, a distant school 
bell, with no silver in its alloy, however, the swish of a wood- 
sawing machine in some back-yard. So my ears are not 
lonesome. Immediately before me is the gray-lavender 
bole of a tall eucalyptus, not a leaf or branch for fifty feet, 
and then a drooping cascade of blue-green feathers. Be- 
yond it a few feet a red-blue eucalyptus, sturdy, branching 
almost at the ground and in blossom. These stand near 
the border of a drive which is marked by a cypress hedge, 
trimmed and proper, and beyond the drive, on the front of 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 417 

the terrace are magnolia and iron-wood and avocado and 
palm and spruce, rising up out of beds of carnations and 
geraniums, jasmine and pansies (all violet), and cherokee 
roses, five-petaled, white with golden centers, and rose 
colored — (the wild rose with a university education, a year 
or two in Italy, and the care of a good maid). While be- 
yond this terrace are orange, and tangerine, and lemon, and 
grapefruit with their green, yellow, and deep red-golden 
fruit pendant; and still further on, a fringe of blossoming 
pear trees tell you that this is not the tropics after all. The 
breeze is a gentle woman's hand, a soft touch, kindly, ten- 
der, emotional, but not disturbing. It is not lotus-eating 
time. I don't know that that time ever comes here. Autos 
whisk through the woods, buildings are going up, the air is 
dry and has tang ; it has challenge in it, but it does not give 
off the heady champagne of the air that the snow breathes 
out on your Millbrook hillside. 

I remember as I looked from my window at the sunset at 
Bethel saying to myself, "Can there be any fairer spot than 
this ? " And this morning as I saw the sun rise into the pink 
and blue of the sky, empurpling the shadowed hills and 
splashing rose leaves on the snowy mountains, I again said 
"Is there anything lovelier, anywhere?" Great blessing, 
these catholic eyes ! Should the heart be equally catholic? 
There is a real problem in philosophy and sociology for you ! 
And now that you know how happily circumstanced I 
am as to environment your doctorial demand is for some- 
thing as to the behavior of the organs and nerves which we 
call the physical man. Well, I can't tell you much. I do 
not rise and walk half a block without that trigger being 
pulled, but the explosion is not dynamite, rather poor black 
powder, I should say. If I walk half a dozen blocks I stop 
a half a dozen times, and once or twice nibble at a precious 



418 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

pellet of nitro. At night I am wakened as of yore, but the 
agonizing, crushing pains do not come every night. . . . 
I eat prunes and bran biscuit and coffee for breakfast; a 
bit of cooked fruit (and that in this land of oranges and alli- 
gator pears and ripe raspberries !), chicken and green peas, 
and bran biscuit and tea for lunch ; a couple of green vege- 
tables and bran biscuit and a small black, for dinner. And 
all this I write with a supreme sense of virtue, which Simon 
Stylites or St. Benedict could not more than parallel. As 
to smoking — a pipe, generous in size but of the mildest 
possible tobacco, after breakfast. A mild, large cigar after 
lunch, and pause here and worship — no cigar after dinner. 
(But this latter is a Lenten innovation. I would not have 
you think I am preparing for immediate ascension.) 

As to treatment, an osteopath and a Christian Scientist 
are my present complement. Each morning the former, 
and each evening the latter. The former to gratify myself, 
the latter to gratify a dear friend who "believed and was 
saved." The osteo is rational, the C. S., with limitations 
and reservations. . . . 

The C. S. is a woman, the sister of an artist I used to 
know. If she did not ask or expect that I believe certain 
things, we would get on better. I can believe in God as the 
Principle of Life, that seems scientific. I am willing to call 
Him Spirit, that is Christian. That He is Supreme in the 
Universe, I admit. That sin and sickness may with further 
light be overmastered I do not deny; physical death, of 
course, seems to me a thing not worth bothering about. 
But that God is all good, I cannot asseverate in the living 
presence of a few Devils whom I know, unless I deny that 
He is omnipresent and omnipotent, or unless I say that Bad 
is Good. God cannot be good and all powerful without 
being also responsible for Bad, and therefore be both Good 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 419 

and Bad. This I can believe, and it brings me to Emerson's 
transcendentalism, which is set forth in the Sphinx — 
"Deep Love lieth under these pictures of Time, which fade 
in the light of their meaning sublime." In a word we are 
growing into the Good. The Bad is not the ultimate, but 
is none the less real. This is better than Manicheism, the 
Miltonian contest between the Good Spirit and the Bad, 
which Wells also in his Invisible King presents; a simple 
theory, understandable but not to my mind subject to care- 
ful scrutiny. There is but one God, one Force, one Prin- 
ciple, one Spirit, and it is working its way through, express- 
ing itself as best it can. And Evil is a partial view, one 
phase of undevelopment, the muck through which, by God's 
own law, we must come; and indeed He could not have 
sent us any other way. This means that He is bound, too. 
Is this supposable? Omnipresent? Yes! All pervading! 
In all ! But Omnipotent ? No, not in the sense that He 
could change the Order of Things, for He is the Order of 
Things Himself. Is there even in Him complete Freedom 
of Will, freedom to make a world other than this? One 
wishes, in a sense, to say so, but the horror of it ! for then 
He is responsible for the cruelty of the ant-heap, the feeding 
of the carnivorous upon the vegetable eaters, the preying 
and persecution of the malevolent upon the kindly — and 
He could have made it all otherwise! With a Free Will 
He could have brought growth without pain, being om- 
nipotent. Here we see God as a monster, — responsible for 
sweat shops and the Marne, in the sense that His will could 
have averted these things. So I say God is not Good, save 
in the sense that He is that sunrise this morning. But 
night cometh, when thieves break through and steal. More 
sunlight — that is the meaning of the phrase "God is Good" 
— a belief in a tendency, in the temporality of darkness, of 



420 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

night, a sureness that the day will come and "There will be 
no night there." 

This is a long disquisition, but I just had to get it out of 
my system ; yet I can't, it bothers, and confuses, and per- 
plexes, and hinders, I believe. Better brush it away for 
practical purposes and have the Will to Believe, for thence 
cometh strength. Pragmatically C. S. works out with 
certain people ; and to them it is Truth. I wish it were so 
with my doubting mind, that I could believe. I am willing 
to be cured tho' I do not understand and cannot believe, 
and this they say they can do. But it has not been done 
with me. 

Lunch broke into this discourse, and then a walk. This 
time on the other side of the house, the other side of the hill. 
There I found a new world. Palms, huge ones, thirty feet 
across, with their dead branches strewing the ground, mak- 
ing a coarse woven carpet ; and pines, large ones, yet not so 
gigantic as yours on the road beyond the creek ; and acacia 
in full golden bloom, glorious, yet modest tree, a very rare, 
non-self-assertive tree, a truly Christian tree, beautiful but 
not prideful. Bamboo in great clumps, erect, yielding but 
not to be broken — wise, tenacious orientals ! And I 
walked on the off-cast seed of the pepper, and beside cacti 
higher than my head with spears of crimson, and across a 
sweep of lawn over which oranges had been dropped, by the 
generosity of an up-hill row of trees that were saying, "We 
must make room for the next generation." The flowers 
(oxalis) and leaves I enclose made a mat, close clinging to 
the earth, a mat of white, red, and lavender resting on these 
clover-like leaves that rested in turn directly on the ground. 
And all about, a hundred plants I did not know, into which 
my footsteps sent quail and rabbit, that did not fear me 
really but could not quite say that Man is Love. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 421 

I have written you a long line, may it serve for a time as 
a word also to your dear Lady, whose letter and rare bit of 
verse I have also received. I do hope that you soon master 
whatever ails you. Don't lose faith in yourself, above all 
things. Believe that you are all that your friends believe 
you to be — a Civilized Medicine Man. Be as deluded as 
we are. Affectionately, 

Lane 

To John W. Hallowell 

Los Angeles, February 21, 1921 
My dear Jack, — It is Sunday morning, very early ; the 
sun is trying to get out of bed, a mocking bird is hailing its 
effort with great gurgling. I am sitting near an open win- 
dow looking down into orange trees, which are a very dark 
shadow, and I am just as happy in my heart as I can be with 
a bum heart, and no home, and a scattered family. But 
— ! Bad word that "but." 

Roots we all have and we must not be torn up from them 
and flung about as if we were young things that could take 
hold in any soil. I have been, all America has been, too 
indifferent to roots — home roots, school roots, work roots. 
. . . We should love stability and tradition as well as 
love adventure and advancement. 

Your new job interests me, but I wonder if you will go 
with the Secretary of Commerce [Hoover]. ... I guess 
he did right. But unless he gets to be the leading adviser 
he'll have to get out. For I'm afraid we are to see too much 
politics — Republican Burlesonism in the saddle. Gov- 
ernment by unanimous consent is not practicable, and it 
looked as if this were Harding's motto until Hoover's ap- 
pointment. Hoover will be the man to whom the country 
will look for some guidance along progressive lines, and the 



422 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

country will expect too much, more than any man can de- 
liver. 

Please tell your dear Mother that I have her book, and 
last night read two chapters. I know Bok and did not 
think him capable of such a literary work, or that he had 
such character as his book reveals. . . . My love to the 
Troop, and write just as often as you can. 

F. K. L. 

To Curt G. Pfeijfer 

Pasadena, 22 [February, 1921] 

My dear old Pfeiffer, — I have treated you shamefully. 
Yes, I have, don't protest ! But I have been pretending to 
be busy. Mr. Doheny wanted me to go to Mexico, and 
Anne did not want me to go, and I have had a hard time. 
They have gone and we have come out here with Mrs. 
Severance, in the loveliest hillside spot you ever saw. Flow- 
ers and trees all about and mountains in the distance. 
Wonderful land ! 

To-day I celebrated G. W.'s birthday by taking on a new 
doctor. . . . Thought I had escaped from doctors but it 
is not so to be. . . . 

This is all my news. I do wish I were there to talk poli- 
tics with you. Poor Harding ! He will suffer the politi- 
cians, I fear, till they undo him. . . . 

The Germans seem to have recovered their audacity. 
They should have been driven into their own land and then 
some. I am not for revenge nor for their paralyzing, but 
just reparation they should pay. Perhaps things have been 
botched, I do not trust Briand. I'd trust Hoover to get 
all they could pay, and he's the only one I know who could 
be just and at the same time sensible in method, but he 
can't be used where he should be used. . . . 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 423 

March 31 
. . . You are a delight and joy to a thirsty man, a true 
water carrier, you give of the water of life. For you know 
that men shall not live by bread alone. Not only words of 
wisdom, sage counsel, come from you, but there is a heart 
behind which does not wane with the years, but on the con- 
trary grows stronger and more generous. I look forward 
to returning to New York to be able once again to feel with 
you the pleasure of an intellectual companionship, wherein 
the mind is so refined as to be emotionally sympathetic. 
You would take the greatest joy out of the beauty in which 
I am living. . . . The night is fragrant (Do you remember 
telling me of that Japanese criterion ?) with orange, wisteria, 
and jasmine. Oh, this is exquisite country, if I only had 
health ! But there is little beauty where pain is, and my 
pain holds on even when I was with my brother on his farm, 
eighty acres, south of San Jose, tucked in the foothills — 
raises nothing but kindliness and a few vegetables and some 
hay. It is the sweetest place in its spirit I have ever felt, 
and lovely physically, too. I wish I could get you to go out 
there with me. Put up a comfortable adobe on the knob of 
a hill with a wide prospect and then make things grow, in- 
cluding our own souls. . . . 

I'm going back there in a week or two, then East, I hope, 
to Ned's wedding. . . . The girl is all a girl should be, I 
believe. Smaller than he is, a tiny thing in fact, very gentle 
in voice and manner, sweet natured, musical, wholesome. 

... I still dream of that place on the Shepaug river, in 
Connecticut, where you think I would be lonesome. A 
winter here with George and a summer there with you, 
would quite suit me. . . . Well, write me, for books are 
not old friends after all, are they ? Forever and ever yours, 

F. K. L. 



424 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Writing of the days of their youth Pfeiffer said later, 
"Friendships are inexplicable, they defy analysis, but what- 
ever it was that we might be doing, we were usually in har- 
mony about it. I can only explain it by saying that we 
liked each other. We liked each other just as we were, 
and we knew each other with intimacy that deepened with 
the years, and never disappointed us. The magic circle 
came later to include others, and they were accepted and 
appreciated with the same affection and trust. ... It is 
a singular and beautiful thing that such a multiple and 
intimate relationship should have survived throughout all 
of our lives. Perhaps it was because we were friends 
without capitulation. . . . 

"Some of us did not meet again, after that first period, 
for years, but whenever we did meet, it was always in the 
spirit of the early days. A few words would tell us what 
we knew of the latest doings of the rest, and we would then 
'carry on' just as if there had never been a break in our 
intercourse. The strength of our joint memories, based on 
our youthful experiences in common and added to from time 
to time, grew with the years." 

To John G. Gehring 

Pasadena, February 24, [1921] 

My dear Doctor-and-More, — This is a note of cheer 
written by a somewhat dolorous duffer who spent last night 
in pain, but this morning is rather comfortable. . . . 

Am reading William James' Varieties of Religious Ex- 
perience, and it is really the most helpful religious or phil- 
osophical work I have ever read. Nothing else anywhere 
near as good for the groping mind that wants to be led 
cautiously, reasonably, suggestively to the "Water of Life," 
but shown that there is water there. (Pretty poor figure, 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 42 



5 



but perhaps understandable.) I must re-read his answer to 
the questionnaire in his Letters, and compare it with his con- 
clusions in this book. You remember my thought that 
probably Emerson, William James, and Henry George had 
been the greatest writing minds we had produced. Prob- 
ably you can improve on this. 

Have been interested myself in thinking of a list of books 
that have made great movements in the world, Darwin's 
Descent of Man, for illustration. Books that have provoked 
the minds of men into action of one kind or another : — The 
Bible, Koran, in religions, of course ! What started modern 
medicine ? I mean in the way of a book ? 

What are, or have been, the great movements in history, 
anyway ? Wars, of course, don't count, when merely preda- 
tory. 

Man's relation to God. 

Man's relation to the World. 

Man's relation to Man. 

Man's relation to the Good. 

Man's relation to the True. 

Man's relation to the Beautiful. 

These ought to cover Art, Science, Philosophy, Religion, 
Progress. Civilization of every kind. And this progress 
has come in waves, hasn't it ? Did any book start, or give 
evidence of the starting of these waves? That's the ques- 
tion. Outside religion and philosophy books were the re- 
sults not the causes of movements. How true is that? 

As always and always, 

r . Jv. Li. 

To D. M. Reynolds 

Pasadena, [February, 1921] 
I'm writing this late at night and will mail it in the morning, 
for I'm going to Santa Barbara for a couple of days. Do 



426 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

with it what you will. Judge for me what it is wise to say. 
And be as condensed as possible. 

What I've written is to be dropped in at the right places, 
it is not conservative. Will see you next week, I hope, 
perhaps Saturday. 

F. K. Lane 

Cooperation is the word of this century and we don't 
know what it means yet. We work together most imper- 
fectly in things political, and we are just beginning to feel 
our way into the worlds of social and industrial life. I'm 
not afraid of socialism. I really don't know anyone who 
is. We're all afraid of blundering attempts at getting a 
thing called by that name, which is a mechanical method of 
bringing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, without chang- 
ing the human spirit. 

The call for socialism or communism is generally a call 
for more of justice and of honesty and of fair dealing be- 
tween men, rather than a demand for any particular and 
organized method of carrying on industrial life. If business 
is squarely conducted we won't try experiments in mechan- 
icalizing and sterilizing business. But a few more years 
of profiteering, and Conservatives would have become 
Reds. 

Now we should be studying and planning for a safer in- 
dustrial life, one in which there will be fewer waves, a safer 
and more even sea. That we can have, if we are willing to 
be less greedy now, less venturesome and predatory. 

The only people who have done much in the way of sub- 
stantial thinking as to cooperative action, collective ac- 
tion, are those who think in terms of immediate and large 
fortunes for themselves, through plans of capitalizing com- 
bined brains and money. Their example is a good one to 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 427 

follow in lesser things, where the object is not great wealth 
but a more even measure of good living. Insurance is the 
right word for it, business life insurance through honest 
cooperation. You mark my word, that is the next big move 
in business affairs. Nationalization of things is not their so- 
cialization. Not at all. It may mean their desocialization, 
their withdrawal from the use of society altogether, or their 
more imperfect use. Calling things by nice names, popular 
alluring names, does not solve problems. Nevertheless 
such names evidence our social dreams. We all feel that 
there must be more of justice in the economic world. But 
we don't want it at the expense of society, that is at our 
own expense, for that means Bolshevism and Bolshevism is 
paralysis. . . . 

Oil is one of the fine forms of Power that we know, for 
many purposes the handiest. Industrially it is as indis- 
pensable and staple as the soil itself. To lose faith in the 
future of oil — why, that's as unthinkable as to lose faith 
in your hands. Oil, coal, electricity, what are these but 
multiplied and more adaptable, super-serviceable hands? 
They may temporarily be unemployed but the world can't 
go round without them. 

A slack time is always one of fear, never of confidence. 
And no policies should be adopted in such an atmosphere. 
For the man who can afford to take the long view these are 
great days. He can take up what others cannot carry. 
Better still he can prepare for the demand of to-morrow, or 
the day after to-morrow — find more oil, if you please, plan 
for its fuller use, as we are talking of oil, but the principle 
applies to everything. Take the railroads. Their car 
shortage is mounting and their out-of-order equipment is 
way up. This has always been so in hard times. But this 
is the very time when they should have plenty of money, to 



428 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

get road bed and equipment in perfect shape for to-morrow's 
rush. No, the nation would do no better if it had the 
roads. Congress doesn't think ahead two years. It is a 
reflector, not a generator. The fault is ours. 

Right now the call in national affairs of every kind is for 
the long view; we have use for the men who can see this 
nation in its relation to other nations, next year and next 
generation, and for men in business who can think in terms 
of 1922, and 1925, and 1945. That's what really big busi- 
ness can do — hold its breath under water and watch the 
waves. 



To Mrs. Cordenio Severance 

[Pasadena, March, 1921] 

Dear Maidie, — It is six in the morning. The sun is a 
long streak of salmon pink in a gray skirt of fog. Chanti- 
cleer is very loud and conquering. The little birds are 
twittering all about, in wisteria, in oranges ; and over on 
the hillside, by the cherokee roses, there was a mocking 
bird that hailed the dawn, or its promise, an hour ago. 

And for all this beauty, this gay cheer, this soul-lifting 
day-breaking I have you to thank. It is the one most ex- 
quisite spot in which I have ever laid my head. And pity 
is that I have been so down-cast that I could not feel fully 
what was here, nor show what I did feel. 

Forgive me for my many ungraciousnesses and credit 
yourself, I beg, with having done all and everything that 
human hands and heart could do to make me "come back." 

You have spent a lifetime doing good, giving out of your 
heart, and the only reward you can get is the evidence of 
understanding in paltry words like these. 

F. K. L. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 429 

To Alexander Vogelsang 

Assistant Secretary of the Interior 

Los Angeles, March 4, [1921] 
Dear Aleck, — The end has come. We were identified 
with an historic period, one of the great days of the world. 
And none can say that our part, of relatively slight impor- 
tance maybe, was not well played. We did not strut and 
call the world to witness how well we did. We did not voice 
indignation at injustice, and make heroes of ourselves at 
the price of unity. And some things we did, and more we 
tried to do, and all were good. So I look back over the 
eight years with some personal satisfaction, for not a thing 
was done or attempted . . . that was unworthy, ignoble, 
unpatriotic or little. 

I am glad to get news of the force, and sorry that I can- 
not have them all round about me for the rest of my days. 
Had I been well I would have been with you this morning, 
to bid you all good cheer. It was my hope when I saw you 
in December that this might be. 

I like your plans for the future and, by the starry belt of 
Orion, I'd like to join you. ... I am stronger and look 
very well, but my damn pains are about as frequent and 
crunching as ever. . . . No one can say that I have not 
fought a good fight and stood a lot of punishment. Good 
luck, dear Aleck. 

F. K. L. 

To James S. Harlan 

Pasadena, March 5, [1921] 
My dear Jim, - - That was a fine long letter in your old- 
time style, and I am doing the unprecedented thing of 
answering it promptly. To this I am prompted by the 
near-by presence of a very handsome young woman for- 



430 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

merly named Wyncoop, now Mays, who knows Mrs. Har- 
lan well, having been much at the Crater Club. . . . Who 
would have thought such a thing possible — that here as I lie 
on a couch in a doctor's office with a rubber tube in my mouth, 
I should attract the curiosity of a baby who came to see the 
"funny tube," and that she should be followed by a nice- 
looking, blue-eyed, bright-cheeked girl who says, "I believe I 
saw you once at Lake Champlain. You know Mrs. Harlan." 

Well now, as George Harvey might say — "One day 
After ! " I want to help in any way I can to make this ad- 
ministration a success. ... If Hoover can work with 
Harding, or the latter with him, all will be well. But I 
fear the politicians — especially . . . [those] ambitious 
for a great political machine. The country will be generous 
for a time to Harding. ... But it will turn against him 
with anger unbounded if he turns the country over to the 
men who want office and the men who want privilege and 
favor. The politicians and the profiteers may be his un- 
doing. I hope not ! 

... I cannot close without a special word to that most 
gracious, tender, and charming Lady who is your "sweet- 
heart." As I wander and see many, I find no limitation, 
no reservation, or modification to put to that declaration of 
admiration and devotion, which I made to Her now some 
fifteen years ago, nearly. Tell her that this old, sick, 
troubled man thinks nice things about her often. My 
affectionate regards to you, dear Jim. 

Lane 

To Adolph C. Miller 

Morgan Hill, March 9, [1921] 

When my eyes opened this morning they looked out upon 
a hillside of vivid green, like the tops of Monterey cypress, 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 4IH 

flecked with bits of darker green embroiderings, and be- 
hind this was green, too, but very dark, and it had great 
splashes of a green so dark that they looked black - - and 
my heart was glad. It was a common scene, nothing rarely 
beautiful about it. Fog enclosed the earth. There was 
no sky. But I had known it as a boy, this same kind of a 
picture, and it went to this poor tired heart of mine and was 
like balsam to a wound. By Jove, it is balsam ! These 
hills are for the healing of men. I have been here three 
days and have taken more exercise than in three months - 
walking and climbing; beside the creek lined with great 
sycamores — alluvial soil, crumbles in your hand, and with 
our friend the gopher in it ; and climbed up through a bit of 
manzanita — big fellows, twenty feet high some of them — 
and such a rich brown, near-burgundy red ! I barked a bit 
of the bole to get that green beneath, spring green, great 
contrast ! 

And above the grove of manzanita was a flat top to the 
hill, from which I could see three ways, and all ending in 
cloud-wrapped mountains, that had shape and were blue of 
some kind, as far as you could see. Ah man, this is a glo- 
rious land — even the people! Along the road I talked to 
Lundgren, who used to be a ship-carpenter, but he had a 
prune orchard here "since the fire." I must "see his 
horses," great snuzzling monsters that he had raised him- 
self (sold one of them once, and sneaked off and bought it 
back) and his calves, twins out of a three-year-old — and she 
had had one before. Oh shades of Teddy Roosevelt, 
there's your ideal ! (Do you remember Kipling's line in the 
Mary Gloster, "And she carried her freight each trip"?) 

And next to Lungren was the Frenchman — far up on 
the hill cultivating his grapes, for which he got $110 per ton 
last year — and this year he puts out five acres more. The 



432 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Frenchman has indigestion and lives alone . . . that hill- 
side of vines gives him something to love. 

When we come to the turn in the road, where you cross 
the creek to climb the hill, there the "Portugee" lives. He 
always has lived there. He was found just there when the 
Padres came. And his name was Silva. John Silva, of 
Stevenson's Treasure Island — born in the Azores, of course 

— there are no other Portuguese in America. 

And John has — how many children ? Give you three 
guesses. All by one wife, too, and she is in evidence, and a 
native daughter. I saw her with my own eyes, black hair, 
dark skin, slight figure, voluble, smiling, large-knuckled 
hands and a flashy eye, oh ! a long way from being unin- 
teresting to John yet, or a merely "good woman." Well, 
how many children did they have, right there by the road ? 

— eleven. Eight boys and three girls — and four dead, 
too. Fine boys and girls, one I saw plowing or cultivating 
straight up and down the vineyard, a sixty degree hill, I 
should say. I was struggling with a cane to get one foot 
before another on the sloping road and he was outdoing a 
horse, that he drove with his neck and shoulders, while with 
his hands he guided the little plow straight up toward the 
sky. I am not envious of such youth. I never had it. I 
was always lazy. But it is a real joy for me to be near such 
youth — just to know that such things can be done — by 
angels from the Azores. You remember Anne's story, "In 
future it is prohibited to refer to our beloved Allies as 'the 
God-damned Portuguese'"? Well, I feel the same way. 

Yes, this land of yours is good. (All land is good, I be- 
lieve.) And the stillness, and the birds, and the flowers ! 
The simplicity of these two dear hearts — George and his 
wife — the little they need ! A paper once a day for five 
minutes, a song to break day with, and a round of songs and 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 433 

piano pieces to end the day, every act one of consideration, 
and each word spoken with a tender look, a gay lilt to the 
voice, even in asking to pass the salt. "Better a dinner of 
herbs where love is," etc. Well, they have it, herbs and 
all, — beet tops and mustard leaves. . . . Good luck to 
you. 

F. K. L. 
P. S. You don't deserve this — you stingy, skimpy mol- 
lusk! 



To Lathrop Brown 

Morgan Hill, [March] 16, [1921] 

My dear Lathrop, — I wish I could be with you just to 
laugh away that cynical mood. I know that I do not see 
the world undressed, naked, in the raw, as you youngsters 
do. Illusions and delusions, let them be ! I shall cherish 
them. For whatever it is inside of me that I call soul seems 
to grow on these things that seem so contrary to the re- 
sults of experience. "If a lie works, it's the truth," says 
Dooley. So say I, in my pragmatism. I have "become" 
in the eyes of men and I want to "become" in the eyes of 
my better self, that ego must be gratified at least by an 
effort. And to "become" requires that there shall be some 
faith. We don't accomplish by disbelieving. That is 
your Mother's religion. It is my philosophy. She has 
capacity for faith which I have not, because she climbs, 
while I stand still. 

Of course the inauguration business was commonplace. 
That is Ohio statesmanship, somehow. But good may come 
of it, and you and I want to help it, so far as it wants na- 
tional food, to bear fruit. Damn all your politics and par- 
tisanship ! Humbug — twaddle — fiddle-dee-dee, made for 



434 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

lazy louts who want jobs and bosses who want power. 
Well, we are out now for a long time, and we might as well 
forget bitterness, or rather submerge it in the bigger call 
of the nation. All of which you characterize as senti- 
mentalism — so says Burleson, too. 

I am beginning to despair of doctors and to say to my- 
self, "Better get back to work, and go it as long as you can, 
then quit and live on rolled oats and buttermilk until the 
light goes out." . . . Well, goodnight, dear chap. 

F. K. L. 

To John G. Gehring 

[March] 21, [1921] 

And how are you, Padre? Do you find that there are 
those who can probe into the secrets within you and tell 
more than you as patient can tell yourself? Has a physi- 
cian who follows the biblical advice, "Heal thyself," a 
Fool for a Doctor? What has been taught you in the ill- 
smelling center of darkness, dreariness and torture, where 
there is more need for beauty than in any other place, and 
less of it, more need for gaiety, and less of it, more need for 
wholesome suggestion and less of it? . . . All hospitals 
should have bright paper on the walls, or bright pictures. 
To hell with the microbe theory ! There are worse things 
than microbes. All nurses should be good-looking. They 
should paint and pad, if necessary, to give an imitation of 
good looks. Now, honestly, do you not agree? And they 
should not have doors open, nor ask perfunctory silly ques- 
tions, such as "Well, how are we today?" 

On examination nurses should be rated largely for things 
that don't count — looks, cheerfulness, silliness, sympathy, 
softness of hand, willingness to listen to the victim- 
patient! . . . 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 435 

I am going to Rochester, ... my brother is going with 
me. Bless him ! He'd be glad to take you back, and he 
can give you wood to chop, and a black-headed grosbeak 
to sing for you. Ever hear one? Better than Caruso. 

May the Lord make his light to shine upon you and give 
you peace. 

F. K. L. 

To John H. Wigmore 

Los Angeles, March 25, 1921 
My dear John, — Hail to you brave leader of the Moral 
Forces! Isn't that an offensive title? You see I have 
been asked to join you in "Potentia." Isn't that word out 
of the Middle Ages ? 

I would like to join against crooks, thieves, and liars. 
But the American people don't like anyone to assume that 
he represents the Moral Forces. And "Potentia" sounds too 
mystic for any land this side of Egypt. Am I not right? 
Answer in one of your sane moments. You cannot go against 
ridicule in America. Bishops here are not the same as 
Lords in England. They cannot save from ridicule pre- 
tentious good things. Now Ross and you are wise things. 
How do you stand for "Moral Forces" and "Potentia"? 
No, no, dear John ! — less hifalutism ! 

I write for information. Tell me — do you think good 
will come of it? My immediate judgment is against it, 
strongly. In purpose — good, in method, name, — im- 
possible. It is as if one were to say, "Come let us gather 
together the Good and the Wise, and say who shall be called 
honest men." Cicero, I believe, formed government by 
the "boni." No one likes the good who advertise. I 

don't. Am I all wrong ? . . . 

Lane 



436 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt 

[Pasadena], March 25, [1921] 

Your letters, my dear Mrs. Franklin, are refreshing 
breezes. They are quite what breezes should be — warm, 
kindly, stimulating ; not hard, stiff, compelling things, off 
a granite Northern shore. Anne rejoices in them, without 
words. 

I have been lately with my one brother on his ranch — a 
large name implying vast herds quietly grazing over infinite 
valleys and mountains. But all farms here are ranches, as 
you doubtless know, as all weather is fine. My brother's 
ranchita is eighty acres of beauty ; a stream below, running 
up to manzanita crowns on good-sized hills, and oaks and 
sycamores and bays, and many other trees between. He 
has a house, all of which he planned in fullest detail himself, 
with as lovely a site as anywhere, and a pretty and artistic 
wife; a good saddle horse, a noble dog, a loyal and most 
excellent cook, many books — and what more could he 
have in heaven? Outside his dining-room window he has 
built a dining-table for the birds, and so as we dined within, 
they dined without. Each morning I saw the sun rise, and 
I whistled as I dressed. One morning I climbed the hills 
and found the cow and drove it in for the man to milk. 
But my only morning duty was to pick a golden poppy or a 
cherokee rose or a handful of wild forget-me-nots for my 
button-hole. All day I sat in the sun, or drove a bit or 
walked a little — talking, talking, talking ; of law, and Plato, 
and Epictetus, and Harry Lauder, (whom we imitated, at a 
distance ; for my brother sings Scotch songs) ; and we 
talked too of our old girls and the early days of good hunt- 
ing in this semi-civilized land, and of Woodrow Wilson and 
H. G. Wells and Emerson and Henry George, and of Billy 
Emerson, the negro minstrel, and William Keith our great 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 437 

artist. And we planned houses, adobe houses, that should 
be built up above, over the manzanita bushes, and the 
swimming-pool that should just naturally lie between the 
two live-oaks hidden behind the natural screen of moun- 
tain laurel, but open clear up to the sun. Each night we 
closed with a round of songs, and maybe a hymn. And 
bed was early. Now wasn't that a good place to be ? 

Not so very different in atmosphere from Hyde Park ! 
But what would Broadway say of such a life ! Oh, the 
serenity of it all, the dignity, the independence, the supe- 
riority over so much that we think important. There one 
could get a sense of proportion, and see things more nearly 
in their natural color and size. Truly, I could have been 
religious if I lived in the country — and not been too hard 
driven for a living ! (For one can't be anything good or 
great when pressed and bullied by necessity of any kind.) 

So I grew in strength on the little ranch and unwillingly 
came back for treatment here, which was not half so good 
for soul or body as to sit in the sun and see the birds 
daintily pick their crumbs and know that the dog at my 
knee understood what I did not tell him. 

Give to the Ducal lady at Hyde Park my spring greet- 
ings, and to the "y° un g lord lover" who bears your name 
my respectful regards. I expect to go to Rochester, or 
elsewhere, in May, and in the meantime think me not silly 
because I like you and have written of what I like. 

F. K. L. 

To John W. Hallowell 

Los Angeles, March 31, 1921 
Dear Jack, — I went to your Church on Sunday. Now 
there ! Real Friends. I wondered, " Why the two doors ? ' 
as I went up the steps, but I said, "I'll take the nearest." 



438 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Someone was talking, so I plumped down in the backmost 
seat. Then I looked about and found that I was faced by 
three rows of sisters, in poke bonnets on a raised platform, 
at the end of the room. Around me were women, women, 
women, and children. Not a man ! 

My wits at last came to me. I discovered there were two 
rooms really, divided by pillars. And there were the men, 
the blessed, homely men. So up I lifted hat and coat and 
piled over on the man's side and breathed again. 

The speaker looked like the late Senator Hoar and was 
intoning or chanting his speech or address or sermon. I 
had never heard it done and the cadence was charming. It 
adds to the emotionalism of what is said. When he sat 
down, there was a long pause, and then a sister, on the 
opposite side now, quoted, modestly, a psalm. Two more, 
a man and woman, spoke. Then a prayer and at twelve, 
with one accord, we all rose and went out. 

It is the essence of Democracy and I fear the forward there, 
and not the most worthy of being heard, come to the front. 

Please tell your mother how good I was ! And write me, 
you scoundrel ! 

F. K. L. 

Postcard to John G. Gehring 

April 20, [1921] 

On the eastbound train, traveling toward a little man who 
carries a little knife in his hand and beckons me toward the 
north. I do not go gladly, because I am feeling so much 
better. Have had whole days and nights without pain, by 
the exercise of all kinds of care. Still that is living "on 
condition." Is there never again to be freedom ? You 
see I am a natural Protestant. Good luck to you, dear man. 

Lane 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 439 

To Hall McAllister 

R.R. Train, Minnesota, April 22 

Dear Hall, — I am now on the St. Paul road going to 
Lake City, where, it is said my son is to be married to ;i 
charming, little Irish girl, one generation away from Ire- 
land. 

Right now, I am sitting opposite Mrs. Franklin K. Lane 
who is, in turn, sitting beside my brother who has come 
East with me as secretary, nurse, doctor, mentor, spiritual 
advisor, valet, and companion. On my right is the Missis- 
sippi river, of which you may have heard. On Sunday I 
hope to go to Rochester again and then be cut in two, tho' 
I am not sure they will do it. 

I left California last Tuesday. It was quite pleased with 
itself and full of pity for all the rest of the world. It surely 
has much to say for itself, and says it with frequency and 
normalcy. The only disappointment in dying will be the 
unfortunate contrast — eh, you Californian ? But then 
you and I are not like those transplanted Iowans who fill 
Southern California, most of whom have never seen Mt. 
Tamalpais nor the Golden Gate and yet think they know 
California ! 

I look at the paper and see "Harding" at the top of every 
column. Then I think of W. W. looking at the paper and 
seeing the same headlines. Oh, what unhappiness ! Not 
all the devices of Tumulty for keeping alive illusions of gran- 
deur could offset those headlines. Ungrateful world ! Un- 
understanding world ! 

I hope you like your new boss. He will be a good west- 
ern Secretary, and is quite likely to get into a row with our 
eastern conservation friends. I am glad he is from the 
Senate, they care for their own. 

I don't like Harrison jumping on Harvey after confirma- 



440 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

tion. Looks little, weakens his influence as "our" man, 
and is not sportsmanlike. We must take our medicine and 
let Harding have his own way, and it won't be such a bad 
way, but surely very different. 

... I should like to get back to Washington and loaf 
for a time around Sheridan Circle. I know a woman there 
who intrigued me (as you writers say) long, long ago with 
various fascinations of spirit and mind and eye and voice. 
But I fear she would not know me any more. 

Now do not be discouraged because you have a bit of 
sickness. You are youth, you can beat old whiskered 
Time. Life has many a laugh in it yet for you. Why you 
look forty years younger than Joe Redding — but don't 
tell him I told you. 

Lane 

To Mrs. Frederic Peterson 

Rochester, Minnesota, April 26, [1921] 

My dear Mrs. Peterson, — ... Once more I am going 
through the grinding of the Mayo mill, and this time I 
hope to some concrete purpose, and have an end to this 
coming out "by that same door wherein I went." The 
dear old meditative, contemplative Orientals threw up their 
hands in despair long years ago and found the figure of the 
unending wheel to symbolize all processes and procedures; 
a world, a universe, without termini. Sometimes I think 
them right, but then again my western mind will not have 
it that the riddle of the Sphinx may not be solved. Our 
assurance meets every challenge ; mystery may make us 
humble ; we may be baffled ; but we do not despair because 
we know we are Gods to whom all doors must open even- 
tually. That seems to be the real underlying strength of 
our position. Why men go on with research excepting out 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 441 

of some such philosophy I cannot see — nor why they g< > 
on with life. 

Tell your good man that I long to look once more into 
the sweet face of the Shepaug, and that while I have been 
wandering in the delicious and rare places, I have not for- 
gotten the fresh wholesomeness of the Hoosatonic. My 
first visit shall be to the meeting place of the Three Rivers. 
Why might not fortune lead us to have a summer in Connec- 
ticut and a winter in California? "I know a place where 
the wild thyme grows," many such places indeed, and high 
hillsides of wild lilac and a wee mountain crowned with the 
flowering manzanita. Oh, this world is a place to make 
souls grow if one can get an apple tree, a pine and an oak, 
a few lilies, a circle of crimson phlox, a stretch of moving 
water and a sweep of sky, that can be called one's own. 

We saw Cordy Severance's place on Sunday — went there 
from the wedding of my boy to Catherine McCahill — and 
found a volume of the Chinese Lyrics y in the big room. 
Great chap Cordy, and a great room he has to play the organ 
in, and more people love him than anyone else I know, for 
he loves them with an aggressiveness that few men dare 
to show, that gives him distinction and is a glory. 

How far away the war seems— way back yonder with the 
fight for Independence and the French Revolution, almost 
back to Caesar. Well, I must quit mental meanderings. 

With all good will, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Roland Cotton Smith 

Rochester, Minnesota, [April] 30 
And you know that I cannot even write Spoon River ! 
Vain man! Strutting cock o' the walk! Knight of the 

1 By Dr. Frederic Peterson. 



442 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Knickerbocker Club ! Gazer upon Fifth Avenue and the 
Foibles and Frivolities ! Reveller in things of life and 
Enjoyer of Gaiety ! 

Look thou upon me. To Minnesota driven. In a hos- 
pital-hotel. Punched and tapped by every stray Knight of 
the Golden Fleecers. Awaiting a verdict from puzzled 
doctors. . . . Bless you, I have been through years of 
watchful waiting but not of this kind, and a few weeks of 
this is enough. But I am a patient, long-suffering, Christian 
martyr upon whom the Pagans work their will. 

And you, poor man. Tied to a woman's foot ! Now that 
is what I call humiliating. Worse than being tied to her 
apron strings or to her chariot, (in the latter, they say, there 
is often much joy.) Why should people have feet anyway 
in these days of autos ? A mere transportation convenience ! 
Well, all our transportation facilities seem to be out of order 
these days. Fallen arches, in sooth ! Reminds one of 
Rome. Very much more aristocratic than infected gall- 
bladder after all. And I do hope they can be restored, those 
arches, and the world once more put on its peripatetic way. 

But you do not tell me of yourself. Can you chop wood 
or saw wood or play golf or do aught else that doth become 
a man of muscle, energy, life, vim, go, pep? Take a trip 
to the South Seas, a knock-about trip, casting off clerical 
garb and living in the open, mixing with the primitive 
peoples, seeing beauteous nature, climbing mountains, 
swimming in soft waters, not seeing newspaper or book. 
They tell me that in Burmah live a happy people who love 
beauty, are always smiling and follow the Golden Rule 
far nearer than those who live by trade and are blest by 
civilization. Ah, that I might see such a people ! The near- 
est I ever came was at Honolulu, and there was the taint of 
the Christian, alack-a-day ! The White Man's Burden is 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 44:5 

the weight of the load of sin, disease, death, and misfortune 
he has dropped on the happy ones who never knew a Chris- 
tian creed. We have given them bath tubs in exchange for 
cheerful living ! 

I am as much in the air as to the future as I was in the 
russet days of Bethel. But one of these days, let us hope 
we may gather over a bottle of something sound and mellow, 
and laugh together over our adventure into the land of the 
woebegone. I do not take to it, tho' they say some people 
live in it by choice, for they find something to talk of there, 
and feel saintly because they suffer. Well, we will have 
more knowledge in that happy future and more of sym- 
pathy. What a lot one must endure to gain a wee bit of 
wisdom. And then to have it die with us. Maybe it does 
not, eh? Maybe it somehow, somewhere finds a corner 
into which it drops and carries someone over a hard place. 
I don't know what kind of theology this is that I am drip- 
ping from my pen, but I cannot yet be beaten to the point 
where I say it is all purposeless. And that is the faith 
that may not save a soul but does save souls, I guess. 

I wish you the joy and elevation of spirit that you have 
many times given to my sick soul and to others. Did I 
tell you my boy is married— to a Catholic girl too, of much 
charm? They were married on the ancestral farm with 
the ancestor of ninety years present and in high spirits. 

A Dios, Padre mio, 

F. K. L. 

To John G. Gehring 

Rochester, Minnesota, [April] 30, [1921] 
Tomorrow will be May day — once, before the world 
became industrial, a day of gladness, now a day of dread, 
another result of mal-adjustment. 



444 LETTERS OP FRANKLIN K. LANE 

What ever would these doctors do if they had no cheeks 
in which to hold their tongues while telling sick folk what 
ails them, and the cure? You are learning, Sir, how much 
of wisdom some men lack who have certain knowledge. 
And wisdom is what we are after, we Knights of the Mystic 
Sign. Wisdom — the essence of lives lived ; knocks, blows, 
pains, tortures reduced to fears, and these incorporated into 
a string or queue of people who have eyes, nerves, and powers 
of inference, and the initiative to experiment and the im- 
pulse to try, and try again. Result — a nugget no larger 
than a mustard seed of intellectual or spiritual radium, 
y-clept wisdom. It does not grow on ancestral trees or on 
college campuses, nor does it come out of laboratories or 
hospitals, tho' it is sometimes found in all these places. 
A Carpenter is known to have possessed more of it than any 
other man ; tho' most of us don't possess enough wisdom 
to know that He did possess so much of it. An Indian 
Prince is also celebrated for the richness of his supply. 
These men have been followed by others who sometimes 
carried mirrors, but some had tiny grains of the real thing 
also. And those are called Optimists and Transcen- 
dentalists and Idealists and Fools who think that more and 
more of these grains will come into the hearts and minds 
of men ; while those are called sensible, and shrewd, and 
sane, who assert that the supply is uniform, stationary in 
quantity but moved about from time to time, producing 
nothing but the illusion that something is worth while. 

But you and I say, "Suffer the Illusion to come into me, 
for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Emerson says 
each man is an "inlet" of the Divine Spirit — just a bit on 
the side, out of the infinite ocean. Thus all of us are con- 
nected up, and thus there is hope that some day doctors 
will be wiser than today. . . . 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 445 

I should like to hold your hand for a time. It's the best 
service one man can give another. We are great hand- 
holders, we men, natural dependents, transfusers of sym- 
pathy and understanding and heartening stuff. They tell 
me here that your blood for purposes of transfusion is 1-2:5- 
or 4. The last is common denominator blood and will go 
into anyone safely, but is uncommon. All the other three 
will kill if not put into those of corresponding quality of 
blood. Well, you and I like each other because we have the 
same wave-length to our nerve current, perhaps, and we 
could hold hands without danger to the other fellow, and 
possibly with some benefit to the world, — for human sym- 
pathy makes good medicine. 

Good fortune betide you ! My brother, who is sitting by, 
wishes his affectionate regards to go with mine, and he hopes 
you will some day see him in that vale of Paradise where he 

lives. 

F. K. L. 

To Adolph C. Miller 

Federal Reserve Board 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 1, [1921] 

May Day, Glad Day, Day of Festival and Frolic, — once. 
Now Day of Portent, of Threats and the Evil Eye. Such 
is the miracle worked by Steam Engine, Mechanics, Quick 
Exchanges, Industry ! 

With this happy opening let me to your letter in which 
you love me a little, which I very much like, calling me baby, 
— child, anyway. And so I am. I laugh at myself. I 
cannot think of myself as Grandad or possible Grandad. 
In fact, I should not be Grandad or Dad, notwithstanding 
the beauty and noblemindedness and capacity of my dear 
kids. But I have always been a priest, married to things 



446 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

undomestic, and without the time which every father should 
have to train and educe the mind of his offspring ; especially 
to give sound and substantial bread and meat to their sub- 
conscious mind when they are young. Then, too, a father 
should have a religion, a sense of relation between him- 
self and the Master, and be able to instill this by gentle 
and non-didactive method into his bairns, so that they 
may steer by the North Star and not by shiftier, flashier 
stars. 

Yes, altho' I am now tottering, bruised, battered, down 
on the floor like a prostrate prize-fighter "taking the count" 
and hoping for strength enough to rise, altho' an "aged man," 
as I was once described in my hearing, I am the youngest 
thing inside that I know ; in my curiosity and my trustful- 
ness and my imagination, and my desire to help and my 
belief in goodness and justice. I want to strike right out 
now and see the world, and having found the good bring it 
back and distribute it. And I see every day things that 
should be done which make me long to live, even tho' I only 
tell others that they should be done. And one thing that 
bothers me right now is our money scheme. I know I am far 
off from your standpoint, but there is something wrong when 
there is so great a variation in the purchasing power of 
things produced. Why is not Irving Fisher on the right road ? 
I should like to lay a quieting hand upon the feverish desire 
for things which so possesses our people. So few things will do, 
rich, beautiful, solid things, but not many ; and then to live 
with them, proud of them, revelling in them, and making 
them to shine like well-handled bronze — not glossily but 
deeply. The great luxury we will not allow ourselves is re- 
pose; that is because we are not essentially dignified. 
The soul is not respected sufficiently ; it is not given that 
food on which it grows. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 447 

Curious, the turn of my mind now, too. Having been 
thinking, and while I still am thinking, in large terms, — 
the city, the state, the nation, all peoples (I have grown 
through them all, never really thinking of the family unit) 
— I am now thinking of a nest, a roof of my own, a bit of 
garden, a tree of my planting — little things, indeed, on 
which the mind can rest, after casting an eye over the world 
and talking in terms of continents. (And I wonder if the 
gardens of the British — their week-ends at home with 
flowers and birds, may not bring them down to those little 
things which make for good sense, sanity, wisdom !) But 
I fear me I may never so indulge myself, and that is wrong — 
that a man should live for fifty-seven years and never thrust 
his hand into his own bit of his country's soil — such con- 
dition makes against loyalties that are essential. 

Now I have talked with you for a long time, but not long 
enough. How I should like to sit in the big re-upholstered 
chair beside the lamp, beyond the fire, and throw a match 
into your brain stuff that would start it blazing. Yes, and 
I would like to gather around that fire a few whom I love. 
You and Aleck and Sid. and Pfeiffer and Jack Hallo well 
and John Burns and Brydon Lamb and Lathrop Brown and 
Cotton Smith and John Finley and Dr. Gehring and John 
Wigmore — the real world is very small, isn't it ? 

It just may be that the verdict here will be one of exile to 
California, to my brother George's farm ; ah, yes he should 
be with the few great, and I say 'exile' for I wonder if I 
should ever see any of you then ? My doctor in Pasadena 
said that I should live as a country gentleman, and I an- 
swered, "But that takes money." Yet I would not know 
where the farm should be, for climate is not all. So long, 

old man. 

F. K. 



448 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

Many months later, writing to Mrs. Lane this friend of 
many years says, "I want also to recall the remark Frank 
made when you and Mary, and he and I, were rain-bound in 
the little chalet at St. Mary's in Glacier Park, nine years ago. 
That was an outstanding experience in my long friendship 
with Frank. We had many hours to discuss things, and no 
matter on what road we started, we always came back to a 
discussion of life ; what it was all for, and what it was about, 
and what principle a chivalrous man should take in adjusting 
himself usefully to the going world. I remember late one 
night we sat in the dimly lighted room after a long dis- 
cussion, he arose, and turning to me said : 'Doesn't it, after 
all, just come to this, — To spend and to be spent — isn't that 
what life is?' Every subsequent experience with Frank 
confirmed me in the belief that that was his personal philos- 
ophy. That is why he lived greatly while he lived, and died 
nobly when his life was spent." 



To Robert Lansing 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 2, [1921] 

My dear Lansing, — I am to be operated on on Friday 
and so send you this line that you may know that I have 
yours of April sixteenth, and have rejoiced very much at 
its good news, that you were better, and that you were not 
bitter because of the come-back campaign. 

Really, I think Harding is doing well, or rather that the 
whole administration is being supported well by the country. 
Oh, these Republicans have the art of governing, and we do 
so much better at talking ! No one knows just what his 
foreign policy is, but something will work through that will 
satisfy a very tired people. There seem to be comparatively 
few out of work now. We are not out of the woods yet. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 419 

But the Lord will take care of them. He may even keep 
Johnson from bolting Harding. They will temporize 
through ; that's my guess. 

Good English the people don't know. Ideality they have 
had enough of for a time. They just want to get down 
to brass tacks and make some money, so that the Mrs. can 
have more new dresses. I do earnestly wish them luck. 
God gave us the great day, and you and I, anyway, are not 
ashamed of the parts we played. In fact, the party loomed 
pretty large those days — the whole country breathed 
lung-fuls and felt heroic. We shall not look upon such 
another time nor act for a people so nobly inspired. 

Please give to Mrs. Lansing my very best regards - - fine 
spirit, that she is — and to you, as always, dear Lansing, 
my affection and esteem. 

Lane 

To James D. Phelan 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 2, 1921 

My dear Jim, — Glad to hear from you and to get so cheer- 
ful a word, for surely you are justified in looking upon the 
world as very much of a friend of yours. You have a rare 
home, in which to gather your many friends, and you have 
had honors in abundance, and now may rest and write and 
speak and adjust yourself to things — terrestrial and celes- 
tial — and other service will call you. There must be some 
Democrats appointed to adjust European or other diffi- 
culties, even by a Republican, and you will be the prominent 
one. So I can look across the mountains to Montalvo and 
find you ripening into a fine old mellow age, conscious of 
usefulness, in health and in happiness. May it be so ! 
Just as soon as my boy gets here, I shall be operated on. 
Ned is now on his honeymoon with his darling little 



450 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

bride, a Catholic Irish girl named Catherine McCahill, whose 
grey-whiskered grandfather of ninety quite took the shine 
off the bride at the wedding. He is a Democrat (State 
Senator for thirty years) a Sinn Feiner of the most robust 
sort, and a farmer of many acres. 

Poor Anne, she is in for a bad time, with Nancy sick, but 
she has a good stout heart and a most adequate and com- 
fortable religious faith, which throws things that are per- 
sonal into a very minor place. The theory of relativity 
has more than one expression indeed, and things are small 
when looked at from a height. And it is good to find one 
who can be both religious and large. 

The country seems to be liking Harding and his cabinet 
more and more. They do have a faculty for getting 
things done, those Republicans, and they are subjected to 
so little criticism. It is really good to see them do their 
work and get away with things so neatly. ... As always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hertle 
Gunston Hall on the Potomac 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 2 

Dear People, — What good angel ever put it into your 
heart to wire us — and such a warm electric message ! 

I tell you this is not Gunston Hall — so few birds, flowers, 
trees — but I like the great sweep of the sky out here. There 
is nothing mean about this land of ours. It gives you some- 
thing, and gives it to you generously, something lovable 
wherever you are. 

The Doctors have not decided what to do with me. . . . 
But we'll be out of suspence this week, I expect. 

I can see your garden now — fountain, hedge, roses, 
bird-boxes, pergola, box and all — with the dignified, stately 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 451 

Potomac way out yonder, beyond the cleared fields and the 
timber. Lucky people, and you deserve it all. No one, 
not even the Bolsheviks, would take it from you. Cordially 
yours always, 

Franklin K. Lane 

To Alexander Vogelsang 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 4, 192] 

Dear Aleck, — I must pass under the knife, that is the 
verdict. On Friday morning the act takes place. And out 
will come gall-bladder, adhesions, appendix and all things 
appertaining thereto, including hereditaments, reversions, 
lives in posse, and sinecures. So that's that ! 

They say that my heart has grown much worse in the last 
three months, but that I probably have four chances out 
of five of pulling through, which is more chance than I ever 
had in politics in California. I believe I am to be operated 
on while conscious, as they fear to give ether. I trust my 
curiosity will not interfere with the surgeon's facility. 

Ah well, this old shell is not myself, and I have never felt 
that the world's axis was located with reference to my hab- 
itat. But this is so interesting an old world that I don't 
want to leave it prematurely, because one does run the risk 
of not coming upon one equally interesting. So I shall 
think of you and try to see you later, in the new offices in the 
Mills Building. May clients come thick as dogwood in Rock 
Creek Park ; and trout streams in hidden places be revealed 
unto you, within an hour's flight by aero. Affectionately, 

Franklin K. Lane 

P. S. Give my regards to the boys with you and in the 
office, when you see them — and to Wade Ellis and Ira 
Bennett and others who may be interested. Love to your 
dear Lady ! 



452 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

To John Finley 
New York Times 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 4, [1921] 

My dear Finley, — I have your postal from London and 
it cheereth me — Yea, thou hast done a kindly act to one 
who is sore beset. . . . 

When you and I can talk together I want to urge a new 
field upon your great paper. Perhaps you can take it up 
with Mr. Ochs and perhaps he can see how he can add to 
his usefulness and to the glory of his paper's name. 

My thought is that there should be somewhere — and why 
not in New York ? — a Place of Exchange for the New Ideas 
that the world evolves each year, a central spot where all 
that is new in science, philosophy, practical political machin- 
ery, and all else of the world's mind-products shall be placed 
on exhibition where those interested may see. Why should 
not the Times do this ? 

It would cost very little. All the plant needs would be 
a building which would contain one or two fine halls for 
public speaking, and a few properly appointed apartments. 
No faculty — but a super-university with all the searchers 
and researchers, inventors, experimenters, thinkers of the 
world for faculty. No students — but every man the 
world round interested in the theme under consideration, 
welcome, as student without pay. The only executive officer 
a Director, whose business would be to see that the great 
minds were tapped, — a high class impresario, who would 
know who had thought thoughts, developed a theory, found 
a new problem, or a new method of solving an old one, and 
[would] bring the thinker on the stage and present him to 
those who knew of what he talked ; and could intelligently, 
quickly, distribute it to the ends of the earth. 

Money ? The lecturer would get his expenses from his 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 453 

home and back again, and be cared for appropriately in our 
of the apartments. Otherwise the incidental expenses of 
administration. Aside from the single and simple building 
the whole thing should not cost more than $100,000 a year. 

To illustrate — it took years for the world to know what 
Rutherford was doing with radium. Why should he not 
have been brought to some central place and there, before 
all the students who might choose to come, tell his story ? 

Pasteur, Einstein, Bergson, Wright Brothers, Wells 
(theory of Education). These names are suggestive. The 
great of the world could walk, as it were, in the groves with 
their pupils and critics, and we could have a new Athens. 
Whatever progress the world had made, in whatever line, 
would be reported at that time. And the world would know 
in advance that this was to be so. Germany has been the 
world thought center for forty years. England is now 
planning to take Germany's place. Why not America? 
But the government has not the imagination, and this must 
be done quickly. 

Why not the Times? And why shouldn't you start it 
for the Times — be the first Director ? 

Then I want someone to take over another of my ideas -- a 
sort of Federal Reserve Board on the good of the nation, an 
unofficial group of men with foresight, who would be a spur to 
government and suggest direction. Somebody whose busi- 
ness it would be to attend to that which is nobody's business 
and so waits, and waits, until sometimes too late. Why 
should we have had no plans for caring for our soldiers as to 
employment and giving them the right bent on their return ? 

There was no one to concentrate attention - - the atten- 
tion of Congress and the public — on any definite plan. 
I tried it with my scheme for making farms for soldiers, 
but Congress, as soon as it found that I was really agitating, 



454 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

passed laws making it impossible for me to use a sheet of 
paper or the frank for the purpose. I do not say my plan 
was the best possible. Then someone should have come 
forward with another, and pushed it against a Congress 
made up of Republicans who feared that Democrats would 
get the credit, and Democrats who feared Republicans 
would. Hence, deadlock, and a great opportunity lost ! . . . 

Seers, or see-ers, that's what these men should be. Elder 
Statesmen, if you please, independent, away above politics. 

Doesn't it seem to you that we are coming to be altogether 
too dependent on the President ? That office will be ruined. 
Every one with a sore thumb has come into the habit of 
running to the President. This is all wrong, all wrong. He 
cannot do his job well now. And he is only nominally doing 
it, and only nominally has been doing it for years. But 
each month seems to add to his duties as arbiter of every- 
thing from clothes to strikes, from baseball to disarmament. 

I see a tremendous field for a body of a few ripe minds 
who would talk so little, and so wisely, and so collectively, 
that they could get and hold the ear of the country, govern- 
mental and otherwise. 

I outlined for Mezes, in your old job, a series of lectures 
by Americans who have done things on Why America is 
Worth While — and he has expanded it into a whole course 
on America, so that I believe he will have something new and 
great — teaching history, geology, art, everything, by the 
history of that thing in America, and how it came to come 
here, or be here, or what it means here. 

Well, I have written you a book and must stop — I don't 
know where to address you but will send this to the Times. 
Please remember me to Mr. Ochs — who can see things, 
and here's hoping it won't be long before we meet. Yours 
always, 

Franklin K. Lane 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 455 

To James H. Barry 
San Francisco Star 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 5, [1921] 

My dear Jim, — I have nothing of importance to say, 
except that I am to be operated on tomorrow and hope 
for the best, for Dr. Will Mayo is to do the operating, and 
I am not in a very run-down condition. 

I find myself quite serene, for I can look forward even 
to the very worst result with the feeling that there is no one 
to meet me over there to whom I've done any wrong. And 
while I haven't done my best, my score hasn't been blank. 
I honestly believe I've added a farthing or two to the talent 
that was given me. 

My brother George is here, with his splendid philosophy 
and his Scotch songs ; and Ned, my boy, and his bride have 
just come back, so that Anne and I are very well content 
that things are just as they should be. I go to St. Mary's 
Hospital where they have nuns for nurses, and when time 
comes for recuperation I shall go to the near-by estate of 
my old friend, Severance, the big St. Paul lawyer, whom I 
have known these thirty years. 

I hope, my dear old man, that you will find new occupa- 
tion soon that will give you use for your pen, and sterling 
love of justice. My regards, sincere and hearty to your 

family, and my other friends. 

F. K. Lane 

To Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 5, [1921] 

Just because I like you very much, and being a very old 
man dare to say so, I am sending this line, which has no 
excuse in its news, philosophy or advice; has no excuse 
in fact, except what might be called affection, but of course 



456 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

this being way past the Victorian era, no one admits to af- 
fections ! I will not belittle my own feeling by saying that I 
have a wife who thinks you the best Eastern product — 
and probably she'd move to strike out the word "Eastern." 
At any rate, I think I should tell you myself that I am to 
be operated on tomorrow, by Dr. Will Mayo, and am glad 
of it. We shall see what we shall see. 

I find myself quite serene about the matter, altho' I be- 
lieve my heart is so bad that they fear giving ether and will 
keep me conscious if they can, applying only a local anes- 
thetic. 

I'd like to have Anne's perfect sureness as to the future, 
but lacking it, I do not look forward with fear, even if the 
worst should happen. I've never done a wrong to any man 
or woman or child that I can now recall — but maybe my 
memory is failing. 

My boy and his bride came back this morning — happy ! 
Oh, so happy ! And my "best beloved" brother who sings 
Scotch songs is here — a great philosopher whom you would 
deeply admire — and our friends the Severances of St. Paul, 
thirty year-old friends, they come over tonight. So we will 
be a merry, merry company. I'd love to see you and the gay 
Cavalier, but let us hope it won't be long till we meet ! 
Au revoir ! 

F. K. L. 

To friends who had telegraphed and written urgently for news 

May 11, 1912 

It is Wednesday afternoon and I am now sitting up in bed 
talking to my good friend, Cotter. Until yesterday I did 
not clearly visualize any one thing in this room and did not 
know that it had a window, except that there was a place 
that noise came through, but I did know that it had a yellow 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 457 

oak door that stared at me with its great, big, square eye, 
all day and all night. 

Last Friday, you see, about ten in the morning, I took the 
step that I should have taken months, yes, years ago. I 
was stretched on a stiff, hard table, my arms were clamped 
down and in three-quarters of an hour I had my appendix 
and my gall bladder removed, which latter was a stone 
quarry and the former a cesspool. Today, most tentatively, 
I crawled on to a chair and ate my first mouthful of solid 
food. But four days ago I managed to shave myself, and 
I am regarded as pretty spry. 



I have seen death come to men in various ways, some 
rather novel and western. I once saw a man hanged. And 
I have seen several men shot, and came very near going out 
that way myself two or three times, but always the other 
fellow aimed poorly. I was being shot at because I was a 
newspaper man, and I should have been shot at. There 
must be public concern in what is printed, as well as its truth, 
to justify it. That is something that newspapers should 
get to know in this country. After the earthquake in San 
Francisco, I saw walls topple out upon a man. And I have 
had more intimate glimpses still of the picturesque and of 
the prosaic ways by which men come to their taking off. 

But never before have I been called upon deliberately 
to walk into the Valley of the Shadow and, say what you 
will, it is a great act. I have said, during the past months 
of endless examination, that a man with little curiosity and 
little humor and a little money who was not in too great 
pain could enjoy himself studying the ways of doctors and 
nurses, as he journeyed the invalid's path. It was indeed 
made a flowery path for me, as much as any path could be 



458 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

in which a man suffered more humiliation and distress and 
thwarting and frustration, on the whole, than he did pain. 

But here was a path, the end of which I could not see. 
I was not compelled to take it. My very latest doctor ad- 
vised me against taking it. I could live some time without 
taking it. It was a bet on the high card with a chance to 
win, and I took it. 

I undressed myself with my boy's help, in one of the 
hospital rooms, and then arraying myself in my best suit 
of pajamas and an antique samaurai robe which I use as a 
dressing gown, submitted myself to being given a dose of 
dazing opiate, which was to do its work in about fifteen 
minutes. I then mounted a chair and was wheeled along 
the corridor to the elevator, stopping meantime to say 
"adieu" to my dear ones, who would somehow or other 
insist upon saying "good-bye," which is a different word. 
I was not to be given the usual anesthetic, because my heart 
had been cutting up some didos, so I must take a local 
anesthetic which Was to be administered by a very celebrated 
Frenchman. I need not tell you that this whole performance 
was managed with considerable eclat, and Doctor Will Mayo, 
probably the first surgeon of the world, was to use the knife ; 
and in the gallery looking on were Doctor Finney, of Johns 
Hopkins, Doctor Billings, of Chicago, Doctor Vaughan of 
the Michigan University, and others. On the whole, it was 
what the society reporter would call a recherche affair. The 
local anesthetic consists of morphine and scopolamin. It 
is administered directly by needle to the nerves that lead 
to those particular parts which are to be affected by the 
operation. This I watched myself with the profoundest 
interest. It was painful, somewhat, but it was done with 
the niceness and precision that make this new method of 
anesthesia a real work of art. I should think that the 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 459 

Japanese, with their very rare power at embroidery, might 
come to be past masters in this work. There were some 
insertions very superficial and some extremely deep. Over 
the operator's head, there were a half dozen heads peering 
intently at each move he made, while the patient himself 
was free to lift his head and look down and see just what 
was being done. I did not test myself, as I should have, 
to see whether I was paralyzed in any part. 

Just when this performance came to a head, Doctor Mayo 
came in and said, "Well, I am going in for something." 
I said, "That's right, and I hope you will get it." 

His statement did not conclusively prove confidence that 
he would find the cause of my trouble by going in. . . . I 
knew there could be no such definiteness, but I said to 
myself, "He will get it, if it's there." 

For two days I had had knowledge that this operation was 
to take place at this time, and my nerves had not been just 
as good as they should have been. Those men who sleep 
twelve hours perfectly before being electrocuted have evi- 
dently led more tranquil lives than I have, or have less con- 
cern as to the future. Ah, now I was to know the great 
secret ! For forty years I had been wondering, wondering. 
Often I had said to myself that I should summon to my mind 
when this moment came, some words that would be some- 
what a synthesis of my philosophy. Socrates said to those 
who stood by, after he had drunk the hemlock, "No evil 
can befall a good man, whether he be alive or dead." I don't 
know how far from that we have gone in these twenty-four 
hundred years. The apothegm, however, was not apposite to 
me, because it involved a declaration that I was a good man, 
and I don't know anyone who has the right so to appreciate 
himself. And I had come to the conclusion that perhaps 
the best statement of my creed could be fitted into the words, 



460 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

"I accept," which to me meant that if in the law of nature 
my individual spirit was to go back into the great Ocean of 
Spirits, my one duty was to conform. "Lead Kindly Light," 
was all the gospel I had. I accepted. I made pretense to 
put out my hand in submission and lay there. 

"All through, doctor?" 

"Yes, doctor." 

"Very well, we will proceed." 

And I was gradually pushed through the hall into the 
operating room. The process there was lightning-like. I 
was in torture. 

"Lift me up, lift me up." 

"What for?" 

"I have one of those angina pains and I must ease it by 
getting up and taking some nitro." 

That had been my practice, but I did not reason that 
never before had the pain come on my right side. 

"Give him a whiff of ether." The tenderest arms stole 
around my head and the softest possible voice — Ulysses 
must have heard it long ago — "Now do take a deep breath." 
I resisted. I had been told that I would see the perform- 
ance. 

"Please do, breathe very deeply — just one good deep 
breath." 

That pain was burning the side out of me. I tried to get 
my hand up to my side. Of course it was tied down. I 
swore. 

"Oh Christ ! This is terrible." 

"It will stop if you will reach for a big breath," — and I 
resigned myself. Men who are given the third degree have 
no stronger will than mine. I knew I was helpless. I must 
go through. I must surrender to that Circean voice. 

I heard the doctor in a. commonplace monotone say, "This 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 461 

is an unusual case " — the rest of this sentence T never 

heard. 



There was a long ray of gray light loading from my bed 
to my door. I had opened my eyes. "I had not died." 
I had come through the Valley. 

"I wonder what he got." 

In the broad part of the ray was my wife smiling, and 
stretching out to that unreachable door were others whom 
I recognized, all smiling. Things were dim, but my mind 
seemed definite. 

"What did he get?" I had expected eternal mysteries 
to be unraveled. Either I would know, or not know, and 
I would not know that I would not know. 

"He got a gall-bladder filled with stones and a bad ap- 
pendix, and now you are to lie still." 

Then to this the drama had come, the drama beyond all 
dramas — a handful of brownish secretions and a couple of 
pieces of morbid flesh ! ! Ah me ! 

I am doing well, cared for well, as happy as can be ; have 
had none of my angina pains since the operation. And as I 
lie here, I contemplate [making] a frieze — a procession of 
doctors and nurses and internes, of diagnosticians and tech- 
nicians and experts and mechanics and servitors and cooks — 
all, the great and the small, in profile. They are to look 
like those who have made their pretenses before me during 
the past year; — the solemn and the stupid; the kindly, 
the reckless; the offhand; the erudite, the practical; the 
many men with tubes and the many men with electrical 
machines. Old Esculapius must begin the procession but the 
Man with the Knife, regnant, heroic size, must end it. 

What a great thing, what a pride, to have the two men 



462 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K. LANE 

of greatest constructive imagination and courage in sur- 
gery in the world as Americans, Dr. Charles and Dr. Will 
Mayo. 

To Alexander Vogelsang 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 14, [1921] 

This is a line by my own hand, dear Aleck, just to show 
you that I am still this much master of myself. . . . 

I am going through much pain. Inside I am a great boil. 
But Nature is doing all she can, and I am helping. They 
think me a right model sort of patient, for I made a showing 
of exceptional recovery. When T. R. shaved the day after, 
I said, "Hip Hip !" Well, I done it too ! I guess as how I 
haven't been so very bad a boy all these fifty-seven years or 
I couldn't play as good as "par" at this game, and they say 
they have no better record than mine on the books. 

The National Geographic Society did a nice thing. Today 
I got a resolution of the most sympathetic kind from them. 
Some gentlemen still alive, eh ? 

I dictated a bit of a thing about my experience the other 
day to Cotter — something to send off to the chaps who 
wrote or wired — and sent you one. I hope it wasn't soft 
or slobby. Did you think it was all right to come from a 
sick bed ? 

It will be three weeks or more yet of hospital, and then 

much of recuperation. But I have no complaint. I feel 

a faith growing in me, and I may yet draw my sword in some 

good fight. Affectionately, 

Frank 

To John W. Hallowell 

Rochester, Minnesota, May 14, 1921 

Dear Jack, — I've been down into the Valley since I heard 
from you, but I'm up once more and with new light in my 




/ 



'/. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 463 

eye, new faith in my heart, more sense of the things thai 
count and those that don't. And affection, love for I ln- 
good thing of any kind; loyalty, even mistaken loyalty, 
these are the things that the Gods treasure. They live 
longest. So I turn to give you my hand, dear hoy. 

I was most badly infected, but I really never fell better 
than when I stepped out of the auto on to the hospital steps. 
And it took some nerve for me to say, "Go to it," under 
such circumstances. (I am patting myself on the back a 
bit now.) 

Well, Glory be! — that step is taken and now I must 
fight to get fit. They say I am making as good a reeord as 
a boy, as to recovery, so all my Scotch whiskies, and \)\i: 
cigars and late nights with you politicians have not ruined me. 

Say dear things to your Mother for me, Jack, and give 
greetings to all your family. 

F. K. L. 

To Robert Lansing 

Rochester, 14 [May, 1951] 

My dear Lansing, — I am disturbed because you may be 
disturbed. As I lie in bed I read and am read to, and some 
of the papers do not treat you decently. The very ones 
that were loudest in their declarations against W. W. at 
every stage, now suggest that you might have quit his service 
if you didn't like it. I hope it will not get under your 

skin . . . 

What comfort you would have given the enemy if you 
had resigned ! Have they thought of that ? I came to the 
brink when the President blew up my coal agreement to 
save three or four hundred million dollars for the people. 
But I was stopped by the thought, "Give no comfort to 

Berlin." . . . Good night and good luck. 

F. K. L. 



464 LETTERS OF FRANKLIN K LANE 

Manuscript fragment written May 17, 1921, and found 
in his room. Franklin K. Lane died May 18, 1921. 

And if I had passed into that other land, whom would I 
have sought — and what should I have done ? 

No doubt, first of all I would have sought the few loved 
ones whose common life with me had given us matter for 
talk, and whom I had known so well that I had loved dearly. 
Then perhaps there might have [been] some gratifying of a 
cheap curiosity, some searching and craning after the names 
that had been sierras along my skyline. But I know now 
there would have been little of that. It would not have 
been in me to have gone about asking Alexander and Crom- 
well little questions. For what would signify the trifle 
which made a personal fortune, that put a new name up 
upon some pilaster men bowed to as they passed ? Were 
Aristotle there, holding in his hand the strings and cables 
that tied together all the swinging and surging and lagging 
movements of the whole earth's life — an informed, preg- 
nant Aristotle, — Ah ! there would be the man to talk with ! 
What satisfaction to see him take, like reins from between 
his fingers the long ribbons of man's life and trace it through 
the mystifying maze of all the wonderful adventure of his 
coming up. The crooked made straight. The 'Daedalian 
plan ' simplified by a look from above — smeared out as it 
were by the splotch of some master thumb that made the 
whole involuted, boggling thing one beautiful, straight line. 
And one could see, as on a map of ocean currents, the swing 
and movements of a thousand million years. I think that 
I would not expect that he could tell the reason why the 
way began, nor where it would end. That's divine business, 
yet for the free-going of the mind it would lend such impulse, 
to see clearly. Thus much for curiosity ! The way up 
which we've stumbled. 



FRIENDS AND THE GREAT HOPE 465 

But for my heart's content in that new land, T think IM 
rather loaf with Lincoln along a river bank. I know I could 
understand him. I would not have to learn who were his 
friends and who his enemies, what theories he was com- 
mitted to, and what against. We could just talk and open 
out our minds, and tell our doubts and swap the longings 
of our hearts that others never heard of. He wouldnM 
try to master me nor to make me feel how small I was. 
I'd dare to ask him things and know that he fell awkward 
about them, too. And I would find, I know I would, thai 
he had hit his shin just on those very stumps that had hi I me. 
We'd talk of men a lot, the kind they call the great. I would 
not find him scornful. Yet boys that he knew in New 
Salem would somehow appear larger in their souls, than 
some of these that I had called the great. His wise eyes 
saw qualities that weighed more than smartness. Yes, we 
would sit down where the bank sloped gently to the quiet 
stream and glance at the picture of our people, the negroes 
being lynched, the miners' civil war, labor's hold ups, em- 
ployers' ruthlessness, the subordination of humanity to 
industry, 



THE END 



INDEX 



Abbott, Lawrence F., letters to, on 
fixing of a rate, 71; on use of Govern- 
ment by the people, 80; on Japanese 
in California, 135; water-power and 
leasing bills, 161. 

Adams, Edward F., letters to, on rail- 
roads, 64; on water problem, 144; on 
politics, 198. 

Alaska, purchase of, 260-61. 

Alaskan railroad, 13, 258-60, 290. 

Alderman, Edwin, letter to, 134. 

Amaurot Club, 37, 165. 

Americanization, ritual for citizenship, 
208; Mr. Lane declines offer as head 
of movement, 321; through Moving 
Picture Industry, 333. 

American Merchant Marine, 66, 346. 

American-Mexican Joint Commission, 
225, 226, 227. 

American Pioneer, 165. 

American Spirit, 213. 

Andersen, Mrs. Magnus, letters to, 
190, 329. 

Asher, Hugo K., 210; letters to, 107, 
334. 

Avery, Eugene A., 179. 

Baker, Newton, 234, 295. 

Balfour, Arthur, 174, 178, 247, 250, 
251. 

Ballot Reform, 12, 20, 21, 22. 

Barry, James H., letters to, 143, 231, 
405, 455. 

Beard, E. B., letter to, on rate reduc- 
tions, 67. 

Benjamin, Judah P., 118. 

Bennett, Ira, 114, 451. 

Bernstorff, Johann Von, Ambassador 
from Germany, 233, 238. 

Bishop, Joseph Bucklin, 24. 

Black, Van-Lear. 412, 413. 

Blythe, Samuel G., letters to, 87, 302. 

Bole, William M., letters, on Reclama- 
tion Service, 136; on writing simple 
English, 195. 

Bolshevism, 291, 296, 298, 320,370, 383. 



Bonaparte, Charles, 63. 

Bonus — to soldiers, 339. 

Bowers, Lloyd, 73. 

Bradley, E. C, letters to, 804, 806, 

317. 
Brougham, II. B., letter, on ceremony 

on Admission to Citizenship, 208. 
Brown, James P., letter to, 11»>. 
Brown, Lathrop, reference t<>. 2U; 

letters to, 372, 402; men to make ;i 

program, 411, 412; "Wanted — A 

Miracle Man," 413, 433. 
Browning, Robert, 26. 
Bryan, William Jennings, 98, 99, 104, 

167; as a moral force in politics, 331; 

letters to, 111; on Hoover, 163. 
Buckle, Henry Thomas, 26 
Budd, James, 37. 
Buddhism, 376, 400, 408. 
Burleson, Albert S., 243, 266, 294. 297, 

299. 
Burns, John Crawford, 24, 25, 27; letters 

to, 83; on the War, 164; on position of 

a Neutral, 166; on German audacity, 

168; on the War, 173, 178, 183; on 

materialism, 324. 
Butler, Charles Henry, 260. 

Cabinet Meetings, 147, 233, 234, 235, 
236, 238, 239, 242, 264, 266, 267, 274, 
293, 296, 297, 299. 

Cannon, Joseph, 206. 

Casement, Sir Roger, 206. 

Chocheprat. Admiral, 253. 

Civil Service, 18, 19, 145-46. 

Clark, Champ, 88, 89. 

Clarkson, Grosvenor, quoted, 244, 248- 
50. 

Class distrust, 46. 

Cleveland, Grover, 18, 20, 27. 414. 

Coal agreement, 292, 463. 

Cobb, Frank I., reference to, 96; letters 
to, on leasing bill, 207; on the elec- 
tion, 227; on BernstorfT's activities 
288; on need for ships, 245; on U-boat 
situation, 253; on newspapers, 326; 



468 



INDEX 



on condition of Democratic party, 

373; to make Democratic program, 

412. 
Cobbett's Parliamentary Reports, 169. 
Cockrill, Senator Francis M., 50. 
Commerce Court, 71, 90. 
Congress, 69, 71, 75, 76, 79, 80, 100, 

110-11, 316; bill against illiteracy, 

326. 
Conservation by use, 13, 42, 272. 
Convoying or arming ships, 234, 236, 

239-40. 
Corporation regulation, 117. 
Cotter, Joseph J., 456, 462. 
Council of National Defense, 13, 236, 

243, 248-50, 300. 
Cox, James M., reference to, 356, 359; 

letter on campaign issues, 343-350. 
Cullom, Leslie (Senator), 61. 
Currency question, 117, 120, 124, 126. 

Daniels, Josephus, 239, 243, 267. 

Darwin, Charles, 26. 

Davis, John F., letter on German Note, 
180. 

Davis, John W., to help make Demo- 
cratic program, 412. 

Davison, H. P., letter declining to un- 
dertake Americanization work, 321. 

Debs, Eugene, 55. 

De Forest, Robert W., 339. 

Democracy, 186, 320-21, 355, 384. 

Democratic party, 21, 39, 46, 47, 76, 97, 
98, 110, 115-16, 142, 212, 228, 371. 

Department of the Interior, 3, 9, 42, 
141, 228. 

De Vries, Marion, 72. 

Dixon, Frederick, letter on making 
Americans, 185. 

Dockweiler, Isadore, 47, 217, 222; 
letter on California senatorial cam- 
paign, 354. 

Doheny, Edward L., on the Irish flag, 
351. 

Dorr, George B., 8, 256, 257; letter to, 
257. 

Economics, 91-93, 97, 127-28. 

Egan, Mrs. Eleanor, 186. 

Ehle, Mrs. George, letters to, 352, 

357, 403. 
Eliot, Charles W., 412. 



Ellis, Wade, 451. 

Ellis, Mrs. Ralph, letters to, on Bolshe- 
vism, 381; "bread-and-butter," 387; 
on work, 390; on her son's illness, 
393, 394; on being a health-giver, 
395, 396, 397. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 26, 95, 368, 
425. 

England's claims, 164. 

Eno, Henry Lane, letter to, 257. 

Eno, William Phelps, a bread-and- 
butter letter, 340-42. 

Express case, 13, 63, 78-79, 99, 100, 
102. 

Farms for soldiers, 13, 284-89, 338, 
339. 

Federal lands, 13. 

Field, Charles K., letter on development 
of West, 150. 

Finley, John, 447; letter on super- 
university, 452. 

Fitzgerald, R. M., letter on Progressive 
vote, 228. 

Fitzgerald, W. F., 34. 

Fletcher, Peter, 183. 

Foster, Sir George, 3, 252. 

Fourteen points, Wilson's, 298, 301-02. 

Garland, Hamlin, letter on American- 
ization, 333. 

Gehring, John G., 358; letters to, 374, 
377, 410; on books, 424; on hospitals, 
434, 438; on wisdom, 443. 

George, Henry, 26, 27, 368, 375, 425. 

Gerard, James, U.S. Ambassador to 
Germany, 233, 235. 

German audacity, 168-69, 422. 

Glover, Charles C, 260. 

Godkin, E. L., 27. 

Gompers, Samuel, 244. 

Government control, 51, 65, 75-76, 80. 

Government ownership, 52, 167. 

Government Reports, 16, 77-78. 

Gray, Judge George, 225. 

Grayson, Admiral Cary, 330; letter 
about resignation, 335. 

Gregory, Thomas, 243. 

Gridiron dinner, 189. 

Grosvenor, Gilbert, 99. 

Hallowell, John W., letters to, on buy- 



INDEX 



169 



ing a set of Gibbon, 359, 360; on 
books, 375; on "roots," 421; on a 
Quaker church, 437. 

Harding, Warren G., 366, 367, 371, 377, 
422, 430, 440, 448, 450. 

Harlan, James S., reference to, 62, 78, 
181; letters to, 222, 429; quoted, 100, 
254. 

Harley, Herbert, letter on judicial re- 
call, 112. 

Harriman, E. H., 63, 64. 

Harriman Inquiry, 64. 

Harrison, Fairfax, letters to, 115, 137. 

Harvey, George, 439. 

Hawley, James H., letter on the elec- 
tion, 301. 

Hearst, William R., 39, 40, 45, 47, 49, 
52, 88, 99, 104, 142, 210. 

Hertle, Mr. and Mrs. Louis, 450. 

Hetch-Hetchy Valley water supply, 41. 

Hill, David B., 44. 

Holmes, Justice Oliver Wendell, letter 
from, 91 ; letter to, 93. 

Home Club, 149-50. 

Hoover, Herbert, 163, 214, 236, 253, 
254, 265-66, 272, 317, 331, 334, 370- 
71, 421, 422. 

House, Edward M., references to, 88, 
118, 120, 121, 124, 130, 184, 255, 
412; letter to, 142. 

Houston, David Franklin, 132, 294, 
296. 

Howison, Dr. George H., 2. 

Hughes, Charles, 206, 210, 213-14, 228. 

Idealism, 103. 

Indian Problem, 130-32, 135, 141. 

Indian ritual for citizenship, 208-09. 

Industrial Conference, 320. 

Ingersoll, Robert, 4. 

Innes, Mitchell, letter to, 126. 

"Intention of the Voter," 21, 22. 

Interstate Commerce Commission, 13, 

33, 49, 50, 52, 61, 63, 66, 78, 79; in 

politics, 106-07, 108. 
Irish, John P., 9. 
Irrigation, 38, 144-45. 
Irwin, Will, quoted, 57; letters to, 

203, 254. 

Jackson, C. S., letter of condolence, 
323. 



James, William, 2, 87, 368, :;?.-, 

411, tit 25. 
Japanese in California, (is, l:;;, :;<; 
Jefferson, Thomas, S!>. 
Joffre, Marechal, 2t~, 250 .'.1. 
Johnson, Hiram, 226, 2>!7, 228, 280. 
Judicial recall, 112. 
Jusserand, Jules, 231. 

Kauffmann, Nancy Lane, 41, 69, 157 

58, 164; letter to, 399. 
Kearney, Dennis, 55. 
Kellogg, Frank B., (it, 75, 311. 
King, Miss Genevieve, letter to, 282. 
Kipling, Rudyanl, 26, 29. 
Knapp, Martin A., 64. 
Knox, Philander, 69. 

Labor Unions, 12, 28, 29, 32, 3C, 2it. 
262. 

Lafayette National Park, 256, 258. 

La Follette, Robert, 241. 

Lamb, Brydon, 24, 25, 173, 183. 

Lane, Franklin K., his regard for hi-; 
mother, 1; his birth, 3; physical and 
mental traits, 3, 4; boyhood, 5 8; 
on writing English, 9, 195, 1!>6; in- 
clines to become a minister, 10; a 
student at the University of Califor- 
nia, 11; relations with labor union-;, 
12, 28, 29, 32, 36, 224, 262; the cen- 
tral purpose of his life, 12, 13; on 
personal antagonisms, It, 203; his 
temperament, 15; City and County 
Attorney of San Francisco, 16, 32- 
34, 36, 37; helps create the Municipal 
Reform League, 17, 83; candidate 
for Governor of California, 22, :S:i, 
37-41, 53, 70, 152; candidate for 
Senator, 41, 216; mayoralty cam- 
paign, San Francisco, 42 t">; views 
on unpledged delegations. t7. 18; 
appointed to Interstate Commerce 
Commission, 50-55; the express 
case, 63, 78, 79, 99, 100, 102, L05; 
on the Japanese in California, 68, 
135, 136; on partisan questions, 69, 
187, 433; on political parties, 70; 
Cabinet position, 104, IDS. 109, 113- 
15, 117, 129; on generalizations, 
121, 125, 126; on spiritual forces, 
127; on the Indian problem, 130-32, 



470 



INDEX 



135, 141; on woman suffrage, 145; 
receives degree from the University 
of California, 146, 147, 170; the Mex- 
ican situation, 147, 177, 204, 225, 
228; organizes the Home Club, 149, 
150; defense of a subordinate, 154, 
155; his religious faith, 157, 191 
217-21, 313, 324, 418, 419, 433; on 
writing poetry, 167, 168, 171, 342, 
441; on universal military service, 
178; on the making of a ship, 181, 
182; at a Gridiron dinner, 189; on 
Christmas presents, 192, 193; plans 
to provide farms for soldiers, 284- 
89, 338, 339; the coal agreement, 292, 
463; on the League of Nations, 307, 
309, 338, 344, 345, 349, 350; on 
government, 320, 321, 336, 337; 
declines offer as head of American- 
ization movement, 321 ; at the Mayo 
clinic, 377-79, 402, 440-63; on work, 
392; on wisdom, 444; his death, 
464. 

Lane, Mrs. Franklin K., letters to, 74, 
200, 212, 216. 

Lane, Franklin K., Jr., "Ned," 35, 40, 
69, 151-52, 158; letter to, 267. 

Lane, Frederic J., letters to, 151, 177, 
205, 210. 

Lane, George W., 31, 34; letters to, on 
Japanese question, 68; on Monticello, 
89; on politics, 99; temperament and 
food, 102; on Cabinet meetings, 
233, 236, 238, 239; no "previous 
question" in Senate, 241; on prepa- 
ration for war, 242, 245; on visit- 
ing Commissions, 250, 209, 303; 
on reconstruction, 307; on Italian 
question, 308; on Woodrow Wilson 
as a speaker, and religion, 312; on 
resigning, 322; on President Wilson's 
illness, 330. 

Lansing, Robert, 233, 239, 298, 300, 
412; letters to, 255, 362; on new ad- 
ministration, 448, 463. 

Lawlor, William P., letter to, 171. 

League of Nations, 307, 309, 338, 344- 
45, 349-50. 

Leake, Edward E., letter to, 152. 

Leasing Bill, 150, 161-62 

Le Conte, Dr. Joseph H., 2. 

Lenroot, Irvine, 370. 



Lincoln, Abraham, 114, 367, 368, 404, 

465. 
"Lincoln's Eyes," 368-69. 
Lloyd George, David, 178. 
Loudon, Jonkheer John, 117, 122. 
Lyon, Frank, 79; letter to, 282. 
Lyon, John, letter on reason for war, 278. 

McAdoo, William G., 119, 238, 248, 
265, 294, 295; letter to, 172. 

McAllister, Hall, letters to, 356, 439. 

McClatchy, Charles K., letters to, 70; 
on prison reform, 81, 83; on Cabinet 
position, 113. 

McCombs, William F., letters to, 106, 
108. 

McEwen, Arthur, 12, 31, 406. 

McNab, Gavin, 412. 

McNaught, John, letter to, 283. 

Macy, Everit V., 265. 

Magee, Mr. and Mrs. Tom, 58. 

Maine, Sir Henry, 26. 

Manning, Van H., letter on Petroleum. 

Marble, John, 143, 406. 

Marshall, Thomas, 170. 

Martin, E. S., letter to, 311. 

Mathew, M. A., letter to, 319. 

Mayo Clinic, 377-79, 402. 

Mayo, Dr. Charles, 462. 

Mayo, Dr. William, 378, 458, 462. 

Mead, Dick, 181-82. 

Merrick, Leonard, 343. 

Mexican Situation, 147, 177, 204, 225, 
228. 

Mezes, Dr. Sidney E., 11, 27, 42, 118, 
173; letters to, 87, 120, 183. 

Miller, Adolph C, quoted, 11, 448, 
reference to, 120, 139, 170, 189, 215, 
402; letters to, 105; on Cabinet posi- 
tion, 117; on beauty of California; 
430; on desire for "things," 445. 

Miller, Mrs. Adolph C, letters to, 188, 
192, 196. 

Moffitt, James K., letter to, 229. 

Mondell, Frank W., letter to, 338. 

Money-power, 71. 

Monticello, 89, 205, 206. 

Moore, R. Walton, 412, 413. 

Mott, John R., 225. 

Municipal Reform League, 17, 83. 

Nagle, Charles, 176. 



INDEX 



471 



National Geographic Society, 462. 
National Park Reserves, 13, 139, 256. 
Naugle, Lyman, letter on Democracy, 

38. 
"Need of a world of men," 8, 25. 
Neutral position of a, 166, 181, 234. 
Newlands, Francis G., 54, 55, 60; letter 

to, on Interstate Trades Commission, 

109. 
Noe Case, 12, 31. 
Northcliffe, Lord, 174, 270. 

O'Connor, V. C. Scott, letter to, 407. 
O'Gorman, Senator, quoted, 206. 
Oil leases, 13, 150, 162. 
O'Neill, Daniel, 41, 331; letter to, 332. 

Paderewski, Ignace, 269. 

Page, Arthur W., quoted, 130. 

Page, Walter H., letters to, on Wilson's 
charm, 133; on Washington in War- 
time, 273. 

Paish, Sir George, 169. 

Panama Pacific Exposition, 165, 167, 
170. 

Parcel Post, 100, 101. 

Pardee, Dr. George, 40. 

Parker, John M., Governor of Louisi- 
ana, 412. 

Parsons, Dr. Charles L., 264. 

Partisan questions, 69, 187, 433. 

Party leaders, 81, 101, 110, 115, 161, 
362. 

Patchin, Robert H., letter to, 186. 

Peabody, Francis S., 376. 

Pell. Herbert C, Jr., letters to, on Con- 
stitutional League, 320; on Democ- 
racy, 336. 

Personal antagonisms, 14. 203. 

Peterson, Mrs. Frederic, letter to, 440. 

Petroleum, 315-16, 427. 

Pfeiffer, Curt G., 24, 25, 26, 168, 173, 
422; quoted, 424; letters to, on divi- 
sion of parties. 98, 422. 

Phelan, James D., Ill, 120, 125, 354- 
55, 412; letter to, 449. 

Phillips, William, 376. 

Phillips, Mrs. William, letter to, 404. 

Pillsbury, E. S., letter to, on con- 
servatism, 291. 

Political parties, 70; re-alignment of, 
90, 98, 115, 116. 



Polk, Sir Joseph, 3, 252. 

Pollok, Allan, letter to, 290. 

Pope's appeal for peace, 255. 

Press, moral responsibility of the, 320- 

28. 
Prison Reform, 38, 73, 81-88. 
Progressive Democracy, 97, 105, 110. 
Prohibition, 10, 39. 
Public Service, 19, 38, 335. 

Railroad rates, 16, 71, 72, 77-78. 

Railroads and shippers, 12, 13, 65, 68. 

Rebating, 13, 03, 68, 72. 

Reclamation Service, 137, 139-40. 

Reconstruction, 307. 

Red Cross Flag, 283. 

Red Tape, 74, 276. 

Reedy, William Marion, letter to, 292. 

Reese, Frank, letter to, 13S. 

Reform Club, 2(i. 

Republican Party, 18, 21, 7fi, 97, 212. 

Reservations to the Treaty. 314, 317. 

Reynolds, D. M. letter on Coopera- 
tion and Oil, 425. 

Roosevelt, Franklin D., 170; letter to, 
351. 

Roosevelt, Mrs. Franklin D., letters to, 
372, 436. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, references to, 33, 
42, 54, 55, 60, 61, 63, 65, 68, 69, 71, 
72, 84, 88, 89, 90, 96, 100, 102, 106, 
109, 188, 210, 227, 228; on his death, 
306; as a great force, 375. 

Letters to, on I.C.C. appointment, 
53; on giving a new consciousness of 
Democracy, 75; on accepting party 
call, 85, 134, 160. 
Telegram from, 50. 
Letters from, 57, 77, 86, 159. 

Root, Elihu, letter on development of 
an American Merchant Marine, 248. 

Ruef, Abraham, 81-83. 

Ryan, William A., 139. 

San Francisco earthquake and fire, 57- 
60. 

San Miguel Defense Association, 31, 32. 

Schmitz, Eugene, 36, 45. 

School gardens. 271. 

Schwab, Charles, 254. 

Scripps, E. W., letter on Wilson's great- 
ness, 174. 



472 



INDEX 



Severance, Cordenio, 98, 441; letters to, 
on travelling with a dog, 157, 184. 

Severance, Mrs. Cordenio, letter to, 428. 

Shaw, Albert, letters to, 97; on team- 
work in the Department, 148; on 
lack of foresight in a Democracy, 
271. 

Shippers and Railroads, 12, 13, 67, 68. 

Ships, need for, 245, 246, 252, 266. 

Silver question, 18. 

Simpson, Ernest, 113; letter on not 
desiring Cabinet position, 114. 

Smart-aleckism, 314. 

Smith, George Otis, letter to, 364. 

Smith, Dr. Roland Cotton, letters to, 
231, 342, 441. 

Smythe, William E., 54; letter to, 55. 

Snyder, Carl, letters to on abolition of 
Commerce Court, 90; on robes, 200, 
363. 

Spellacy, M. A., 41; letter to, 406. 

Spellacy, Timothy, 41; letters to, on 
politics, 104, 350; on the Irish, 373. 

Spencer, Herbert, 26. 

Spiritual forces, 127. 

Spurgeon, P. T., letter on getting into 
politics, 32. 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 26, 29, 318. 

Straus, Oscar S., letter on need for 
leaders, 101. 

Sullivan, Mark, letter on improving 
the Department, 140. 

Tacoma Evening News, 27, 28, 29, 30. 

Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe, 26. 

Tariff, 126. 

Tariff Reform, 18. 

Teal, Joseph N., 125; letter to, on 

political conditions, 124. 
Thompson, William Boyce, letter on 

Roosevelt Memorial, 310. 
"To spend and to be spent," 448. 
Tradition, 6, 89, 91, 101, 421. 
Trusts, 126. 
Tumulty, Joseph, 299, 335. 

Universal Military Service, 178. 
Unpledged delegations, 47-48. 

Vassault, Ferdinand, 20, 21. 

Vedic Hymns, 26. 

Vogelsang, Alexander, letters to, 165; 



on Mexican statesmen, 226; on the 
end of the Administration, 429, 462. 

Wall, Francis R., letter on partisan- 
ship, 187. 

Wall, Mrs. Louise Herrick, letters to, 
318, 328. 

Wallace, Grant, quoted, 4. 

Washington in Wartime, 274-75. 

Water-powers, 13, 161-62, 271. 

Western progressives, 227, 228, 230. 

What I Am Trying To Do, 123. 

Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, 49; Roosevelt's 
telegram to, 50, 62; speech on con- 
ferring degree, 170, 229; to make pro- 
gram, 412. 

Letters to, on opposition to I.C.C. 
appointment, 54, 56; on largeness of 
Roosevelt, 65; on Express Case, 102; 
on Woodrow Wilson, 119; on being 
obliged to postpone receiving degree, 
147; on Wilson carrying California, 
229; on becoming President-Emeri- 
tus, 311; on looking on the affairs of 
men, 369, 401. 

Wheeler, Edward J., letters to, on 
writing poetry, 167; on Howells, 242; 
on conservation-by-use, 272. 

Wheeler, William R., letters to, 45, 60, 
62; on Express rates, 78, 153, 222, 
407. 

White, George, 403, 413. 

Whitlock, Brand, 214. 

Whitney, Edward B., letter on govern- 
ment control, 51. 

Wickersham, George W., 73; letters to, 
on German policy, 175, 207; on States- 
men, 365. 

Wigmore, John H., 2, 11, 17, 83, 118, 
119; letters to, 18, 19, 22, 30, 33, 35; 
on running for Mayor, 42; on defeat, 
43, 56, 61 ; telegram on confirmation, 
62; on treatment of criminals, 72; on 
Western Advance Rate Case, 77; on 
receiving Cases on Torts. 88, 94; on 
politics, 103; on Southern inefficiency, 
121; on Woodrow Wilson, 122, 123; 
as First Assistant, 131; on judges, 
166, 188; on "Moral Forces," 435. 

Willard. Daniel, 244, 246; letters to, 
94; on leaving Advisory Commission, 
300. 



INDEX 



\: i 



Williams, Orva G., letter on Democ- 
racy, 46. 

Wilson, Woodrow, references to, pen- 
sion application, 85, 88; on nomina- 
tion, 99; a real leader, 101, 102, 104, 
105, 106, 107, 109-10, 114; leader of 
party, 115; speech at Southern So- 
ciety dinner, 119-20, 121, 122, 12:5, 
124, 174-75; on capacity for indig- 
nation, 176; on circulation of infamous 
stories, 211; need for party reorgan- 
ization, 230; in Cabinet meetings, 233, 
234, 235; not for preparedness, 236; 
too slow, 240, 241 ; speech to Congress, 
300; Italian situation, 308; as a 
speaker, 312, 323; had no fear, 366. 
Letters to, on Hearst's methods of 
attack, 39; congratulation on elec- 



tion, 110; on Women < 'ivil 
employees' ri^'lit to participate in 
Woman Suffrage par ides, i i • 
Secretary Wilson, 158; on Mi 
204; on nol writing platform, t\ I 
eight hour day, 223; on Via 
railroad, 258; on stopping -ink. . 201; 
Farms for soldiers, 285; letter ol 
ignation, :>:i7. 

Wilson, William, Secretary ol Labor, 
158-59, 21:;, 244, 294 95, 206 

Woman Suffrage, 1 l.V 

Workingman, The American, :'>I7. 

Work, 392. 

World Bank, need for a. 71. 

Young Men's Democratic Lo 
20, 21. 



.6 06 



:4 







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UBB ARY OF CONGRESS 



illffl 





